BENGALURU: Charging the Karnataka Real Estate Regulatory Authority (K-RERA) of being completely ineffective in delivering justice, home owners of the ultra-luxury Ozone Urbana residential campus in Devanahalli, withdrew all seven cases filed with the Authority over the years. They plan to file them afresh in the Karnataka High Court, with one case already being filed.
The order permitting them to withdraw all their cases was issued by K-RERA Chairman Rakesh Singh and member GR Reddy on March 18, after a request was made by the Ozone Urbana Buyers’ Welfare Association on February 28.
Ozone Urbana was planned on 185 acres as a separate ‘Dream City’ within the city. A number of residential complexes were proposed within this city, with each having anywhere between 1,000 and 2,000 houses. A 240-bed hospital, retail mall, entertainment centre, 1lakh sqft of clubhouse and two senior citizen homes figured among its plans, say multiple home buyers. The deadline was 2017.
Over the past six years, cases were filed by the Association against Ozone Urbana Infra Developers Private Limited for non-completion of their flats, among multiple other charges.
Speaking on behalf of the association, a member who did not want to be named, billed RERA as “completely ineffective and toothless”. “Ozone Urbana Developers has the maximum number of 590 cases filed against it in the state. K-RERA has issued 214 execution orders for revenue recovery, but not a single order has been honoured by the builder. We only ended up spending money on lawyer fees. Since it has failed to help the home buyers, we have decided to approach the High Court for justice and start from scratch.”
Among the buyers hit hard is senior citizen couple Raju Sandhwani and his wife Bhavana, who bought two properties at Ozone Urbana for nearly Rs 1crore. A distraught Raju said, “K-RERA is a defunct body and needs to shut down. My wife and I jointly invested in a 3BHK flat at Ozone Pavilion, which was to be handed over in 2017. We are yet to get the house.
The full fee refund order issued to the builder has been ignored completely. We also invested in a 1BHK in Irene senior home, and that money too is gone. A similar RERA order for refund has again been ignored by the Ozone developer.”
Stating that they have developed diabetes and other health issues due to the financial stress, he said, “Our life’s savings are invested here. We had a nice plan to live together in the 3BHK and after one of us leaves this world, the other could move into the senior home.”
Asked to respond to these allegations, RERA Chairman Rakesh Singh said, “We have done whatever is possible within the RERA Act. The actual process of recovery needs to be carried out by other government departments.”