BENGALURU: The Karnataka Real Estate Regulatory Authority (K-RERA) has ordered Bengaluru-based builder Ozone Urbana Infra Developers Private Limited to immediately register its property `Serene Urbana’ with the authority. This residential home for senior citizens, located at Kannamangala village in Devanahalli taluk, is incomplete and is allegedly short of numerous safety features.
The RERA order dated July 6 passed by Chairman H C Kishore Chandra and members Neelamani N Raju and G R Reddy billed Serene Urbana as “an ongoing project” and directed it to be registered under RERA as per Section 3 of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act within two weeks of the receipt of the order. The order was issued following a complaint filed with it by Serena Urbana Apartment Owners Welfare Association against the developer (Respondent 1) and four others, Covai Property Centre India Ltd in Coimbatore (Respondent 2) Covai Senior Care Constructions Pvt Ltd (Respondent 3) also in Coimbatore, Serene Senior Living Private Limited in Chennai (Respondent 4) and Columbia Pacific Communities Private Limited (Respondent 5) in Bengaluru.
The order states that the gist of the complaint was that the respondents had planned and conspired to defraud the allottees by collecting a huge amount from them even before executing the agreement of sale.
Advocate G Suriya Narayanan, who represented the Association, told TNIE, “The project has a total of 318 apartments comprising 1 BHK/2BHK houses and the average age of the occupants is 79. Most of the children of these senior citizens are abroad and they opted to have a safe, peaceful life in such a residential community. However, they are facing multiple issues.”
Elaborating on them, the advocate charged, “Fire safety clearance has not been obtained. The elevator as well as other electrical installations have also not obtained proper safety clearances.”
The common property on the ground floor for which all the house owners have paid has been sold under Sale Deed to the Columbia Pacific Communities Pvt Ltd. Instead of handing over the one-time maintenance sum of Rs 3.69 crore paid by all owners to the association, the builder has handed over to the service provider, the Columbia Pacific group.
The primary respondent’s contention was that all development works of the project were completed before the RERA Act came into force. However, the order has established that as on July 31, 2017, the project was incomplete.
The builder has presented a case to RERA that the project has been completed. However, the certification has not been given by the gram panchayat as mandated but only by an architect and was invalid, the order added.