BENGALURU: For the first time in the State, a Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) court on Friday launched a forensic audit and ordered that the builder hand over the incomplete project to the buyers for completion. The project in question, Unishare Spatio’, a 14-storeyed, 235-unit project located off Bannerghatta Road, which has remained incomplete since February 2017, will now be handed over to the buyers’ association.
It also sets a precedent for countless other real estate projects in which builders have left the buyers high and dry. Forensic audit refers to a stock-taking exercise carried out physically by a team in which the amount paid by the buyers for the purchase of their homes, is tallied with the progress of work.
The RERA court had earlier on July 26 cancelled the licence of the builder--Unishare--under Section 7 of the RERA Act. A source said, “The step to revoke the licence and hand it over to the buyers’ society to complete it on their own is the first verdict of its kind in the State. It offers the much needed hope to over 3 lakh property buyers in the State who have paid huge sums of money to different builders and are waiting for years for their homes to be handed over.”
Welcoming the verdict on behalf of the 165 individuals who have already paid up to 75% of the cost for their homes, ranging between B60 lakh and B90 lakh to Unishare, Lokesh Reddy of Unishare Spatio Owners’ Association told TNIE, “A window period of 60 days has been given to the buyers to take over the project. We will be hiring a contractor to complete the job for us. We plan to mobilise resources among the buyers only as most of them still have to pay a portion of the amount, and for overheads, we have decided to pool in the resources.” The compensation that the builder needs to pay will come in due course of time,” he added.
The project began in 2013 by Unishare which has 14 other projects in the City including 2 BHK and 3 BHK homes and other amenities. “Since February 2017, the builder has abandoned it, and not a brick has been moved. We have been doing our best to reach out to them but we get evasive answers. The builder shifted office from Seshadripuram and is never available at the new office,” Reddy added. The Association filed a case in October 2020 against the builder in the RERA court.