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 allegedly lacks 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 “an ongoing project” and directed that it be registered under RERA as per Section 3 of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, within two weeks of receipt of the order.
The order was issued following a complaint filed with it by Serene 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/2 BHK houses and the average age of the occupants is 79. Most of the children of these senior citizens are abroad, and they opted for a safe, peaceful life in the residential community. However, they are facing multiple issues.”
Elaborating, the advocate said, “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 to 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 it 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 RERA 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 certificate has not been given by the Gram Panchayat, as mandated, but only by an architect and was invalid, the order added.
Home buyers request MP to bring RERA under Sakala
Karnataka Home Buyers Forum, a representative body of home buyers in the state, on Sunday urged Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya to ensure the effective implementation of the Karnataka Real Estate Regulatory Act (K-RERA). Speaking on behalf of the forum, convenor Dhananjaya Padmanabhachar said, “We have submitted a detailed memorandum to the MP. We asked him to ensure that K-RERA be brought under Sakala (Karnataka guarantee of services to citizens) in the interest of home buyers.
We want the government to declare a competent authority for apartment owners associations. The process for common area transfer needs to be defined by the government. The builder needs to transfer not only houses, but also the common area to the association under Section 17 of RERA, but that is not done.” Home buyers from Mantri Serenity requested the government to intervene to goad promoters to comply with section 17 of RERA. The MP assured that measures would be taken, he added.