BENGALURU: With four years having elapsed since the revised completion deadline and no sign of the residential project being completed, the Karnataka Real Estate Regulatory Authority has handed over the construction of a posh villa project to its buyers.
The project in question is `LGCL Pueblo’ on Rest House Road, off M G Road, in which 59 villas are being built by LOCL Properties Pvt Ltd.
It is only in the rarest of instances that the property is taken off the builder completely.
The RERA order issued on Friday (August 26) has been approved by Chairman Kishore Chandra, Member-1 Dr Vishnuvardhan Reddy and Member-2 Neelamani N Raju.
It stated that the Authority has concluded after numerous hearings that this was a fit case for invoking the provisions under section 8 of the Act and allowing the completion of the project by an association formed by the allottees, the Pueblo Villa Owners Co-operative Society Limited.
The order copy with TNIE states that the agreement to develop a villa project was entered into between the builders and buyers on December 17, 2012.
The commencement certificate was issued by BBMP on June 2, 2015 with a 24-month deadline specified.
With a grace period of six months given, the project was to be handed over by May 2, 2018.
A total of 66.53 crore has been collected from buyers.
“As per the complainants, the percentage of the completion of the project is only 41% and the amount spent by the respondent-promoter on the development work so far is only Rs 17.54 crore, contrary to the claim of the respondent-promoter that the amount spent on the project is Rs 33 crore,” the order said.
The directions issued by RERA in many of its 12 hearings were violated by the builder, it added.
K-RERA also ordered a forensic audit (assessment of all past financial transactions to look into concerns of fraud) on the builder under section 35 of the RERA Act.
The developer has not been transparent and not provided the mandatory quarterly updates too, the order pointed out.
The refundable deposit paid to land owners amounting to Rs 14.27 crore and the charges of Rs 3.6 crore paid towards water and power could be utilised for completing the project by the association, RERA said.
A shortfall of Rs 3.24 crore needs to be shared by the villa owners to complete it, the order said.