BENGALURU: A woman unable to get a refund from a land developer has found relief in a consumer court order.
Pushpavathi (52), a resident of Chandra Layout in Vijayanagar, will get her advance back, and compensation of Rs 10 lakh, besides litigation costs of Rs 50,000. She had booked 10 sites.
The third Additional Bengaluru Urban District Consumer Redressal Forum, comprising President H S Ramakrishna and member L Mamatha, has also directed Maxworth Realty India Ltd, Nehru Nagar, Bengaluru, to pay annual interest at 18 per cent from February 27, 2013.
“The complaints are allowed holding that there is deficiency in service by the realty firm,” the forum said. It also directed the company to pay Rs 1 lakh per site as compensation for mental agony and Rs 5,000 towards costs of litigation.
“It is a settled principle of law, the builders in case of failure to register the sites in favour of the customers... ought to refund the advance amounts together with interest since there is a deficiency in service,” the forum said. It observed that the firm had failed to execute the sale deed as promised in the agreement.
Pushpavathi had booked 10 sites bearing No 22 to 27, 29, 30, 32 and 1 at a proposed residential layout called Max Residency in Survey 8/P9 of Thindlu village, Devanahalli taluk, Bengaluru Rural district.
She paid an advance of Rs 3.06 lakh for each site measuring 30 by 40 ft on March 14, 2013. At Rs 850 per sq ft, the total for a site comes to Rs 10.20 lakh.
The firm said it would execute the sale deeds after obtaining approvals from the government and the Bangalore International Airport Area Planning Authority (BIAPPA), the complainant said.
After Pushpavathi paid the advance, the firm kept postponing the sale deed process. Eventually, it sent a mail to Pushpavathi on March 25, 2014, asking her for the remaining Rs 83.29 lakh within 48 hours, and promising to get back with a draft of the sale deed soon. The company did not reply to her legal notice.
Roopesh Sulegai, Deputy General Manager, Maxworth Realty, admitted there had been a delay in completing the project. It comes under the catchment area of Arkavathi and Kumudavathi rivers, and cases are pending before the High Court of Karnataka. That is the reason for the delay in getting approvals, he said.
“We are ready to refund the booking amount but Pushpavathi is demanding it with interest. Our terms and conditions say if a customer cancels a booking, the company will not pay interest,” he said.
Different Maps
On March 13, 2014, Maxworth Realty sent a mail to Pushpavathi enclosing the map of the layout, but it was not approved by BIAPA or any other government authority. The firm had created the map, the petition said. Again, on March 20, 2014, the company sent another map to Pushpavathi with completely different site numbers, but even this was not approved by BIAPA, she complained.
