HOMEBUYERS TO GET REFUND FOR UNDELIVERED FLATS 27 YRS ON

MUMBAI: About 27 years after they booked flats in a residential project at Kopar Khairane in Navi Mumbai, two residents of Lokhandwala will receive amounts equal to seven times the price of the flats as the builder failed to complete the project and handover over ready flats.

During the pendency of a proceeding before the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC), builder Jaswant Kumar Bhatia, the proprietor of City Builders, on May 11 agreed to pay compensation of ₹91 lakh and ₹88 lakh to Gul Achra and Kanta Achra, respectively. Gul had booked a flat admeasuring 1,570 square feet in the City Embassy project of City Builders for total consideration of ₹12.56 lakh in November 1995 and paid the sum of ₹7.70 lakh in parts, while Kanta had also booked a flat in the same project, admeasuring 1,645 square feet of built-up area for total consideration of ₹13.16 lakh and paid amount of ₹10 lakh to the builder. In April 1996, the Debt Recovery Tribunal at Mumbai had attached the under-construction building, which was also attached by the Income Tax department in January 2003. Consequently, the builder could not complete the project and hand over ready flats to the complainants.

Eventually, in 2012, the flat buyers moved the Maharashtra State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission and acting on their complaints in October 2016, the State Commission directed the builder to complete the flats in four months and handover them over to the complainants, who in turn were ordered to pay the balance consideration to the builder in two months. The builder, however, refused to accept their payment and carried the matter before NCDRC, which directed him to refund the amount equivalent to the current ready reckoner value of the flat.