CHENNAI: Buyers who bought apartments in a massive housing project coming up at Anna Nagar have been left stranded for years now. Five years after the promised deadline, the apartments were not handed over to the owners. Finally this year, when the handing over happened, the owners were shocked to find that many of the promised amenities -- such as metro water connection, piped gas connection, road access, and swimming pool -- were still missing.
What’s interesting is that the builders had advertised this as a “luxury project”, and owners paid upwards of Rs 1.5 crore to buy their dream home here. While the project was to have 26 residential towers, to be built over five phases, they have completed and delivered just 19. The current issue is with the completion of Phase-3 works, which has 380 apartments in six towers. The homes with all the above amenities were supposed to be delivered by 2013. The money charged was inclusive of these facilities.
“But, the builder delayed the project and started delivering the apartments only in 2018,” alleges VG Ramakrishnan, one of the owners of the apartment. “The completion certificate was obtained only in August 2020. Till date, a large number of basic amenities have not been provided -- there’s no water or sewage connection, entry gates and fencing are missing among other things.” Pointing to the swimming pool, which is bone dry and not put into use, one of the resident said that parking slots have also not been provided to the owners.
Multiple representations have been made to the builder for completion of the project but to no avail. The builder has stopped responding to owners mails, says Ramakrishnan. On Wednesday, the entire surrounding was tense with residents from Phase-3 of the project picketing in front of the site office submitting a collective petition urging the builder to complete the project and provide basic amenities and create a liveable condition.
“The developer had promised that by November 30, they will provide us with all the amenities. But nothing has moved,” says one of the resident. The developer has been drawing a lot of flak for their residential project. It is learnt many of the buyers have approached Tamil Nadu Real Estate Regulatory Authority (TNRERA) for non-delivery of flats on time.
It is learnt that TNRERA has directed the developer to refund the amount paid along with interest, and pay a compensation of Rs 2 lakh each to two home buyers for non-delivery of flats recently. When contacted Ozone group, the developer, a spokesperson said in statement, “We have deployed the required resources and will be executed in a phased manner.”