BENGALURU: A bench of the Karnataka Real Estate Regulatory Authority (K-RERA) has ordered the promoters of the BDA-approved residential villa project ‘After the Rain’ to pay Rs 85.47 lakh to a couple as penalty for delay in handing over their home. Their villa was supposed to be handed over by the promoter on March 31, 2021, but it is still not done.
The order was issued on September 9 by GR Reddy, Member of the fifth additional bench of K-RERA, in favour of Srinidhi A Muralidhar and his wife Nappina Sampath, residents of JP Nagar, 7th Phase. The promoters are Total Environment Building Systems Pvt Ltd and Pragathi Group.
The project is located on Sir MVIT College Road in Bettahalasur village, Bengaluru North. ‘After the Rain’ Phase I was supposed to be ready with 245 units, but only 55 have been handed over so far, say home buyers.
“I have only received partial justice. K-RERA has not taken into consideration the point that the builder has taken 86 per cent as advance amount instead of the 10 per cent mandated by the RERA Act. An advance of Rs 2.23 crore (out of total cost of Rs 2.59 crore) was taken from us in February 2015, while they signed the agreement for sale only in 2018. When taking the advance, they promised handover date by the builder was December 2018,” Muralidhar told TNIE.
He added, “The main reason we bought the villa was for the sake of our parents, who were 75-plus, and could live in comfort, but the handover has been delayed by nearly six years as on date. My parents are in their eighties now. The Club House and other amenities promised are nowhere near completion. They are very disappointed and upset over this whole affair.”
Anu Chandok, another home buyer, said, “I purchased my home in 2015 by paying Rs 1.35 crore upfront. However, the builder handed over the sale agreement only in 2021 after much request. We are in 2024 now and only 55 units have been handed over.”
She added that she was charged Rs 50 lakh extra for a garden view. “I was charged preferential location charges. Instead of a garden view, the view I have is a construction dump now,” Chandok said.
“The builder has constructed the Sewage Treatment Plant and the Waste Water Treatment Plant within the 30 metres buffer zone of the Railways. The original plan was only to build 89 apartments, but the builder kept approaching BDA and got their plan modified repeatedly to build more villas without completing the original promised number,” Stephen Verghese, another aggrieved owner, charged. Kamal Sagar is the founder of Total Environment, and he and his wife Shibanee Sagar are listed as its Directors. TNIE got in touch with the CEO of the firm, Karthik Dhanasekaran, a couple of days ago. He requested for an hour to get back with the company’s response. Two days later, he was yet to respond.
A top BDA official told TNIE that it was well within Town Planning rules to modify the plans repeatedly as requested by the builder.