RERA provides relief to 5 6 home allottees Directs developer to pay interest for delayed possession

The Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority (MahaRERA) provided relief to at least 56 allottees in a real estate project by directing the developer to pay interest for delayed possession. The RERA bench acted on a complaint filed by 56 allottees regarding delayed possession by the developer for seven years.

During the hearing, all the 56 allottees were present. These allottees had purchased apartments in ‘Kalika Heights’ situated in Thane after signing the agreement of sale with the developer Sanjay Pandey.

These allottees alleged that the developer was to handover possession of the apartments in 2011 and failed to do so.

“Few allottees have already paid at least 85 per cent of the consideration price of the apartments and few others paid even full amount. Hence, we request the authority to direct the developer to handover possession of the apartments to us at the earliest and pay the interest for the delayed possession,” said one of the complainant. The advocate for the developer said the project was delayed due to delay in receiving the required sanctions and approvals from the respective local authority.

The advocate also stated the developer had been in touch with the buyers and informed them about the delay due to reasons beyond his control.

The allottees argued the developer kept extending the possession date and promised to handover possession of the said apartments by December 2O17. “The developer has not made any progress in the construction work in the last few months. The work could have been easily completed by December 2012 since the developer had all the approvals in place,” said the complainant.

The RERA bench observed that the revised proposed date put out in the project registration webpage is December 31, 2018. The bench also stated that it could have been possible for the project work to be completed before the said date after confirming the physical progress of construction uploaded on the webpage.

The RERA bench thereby directed the developer to pay interest for the period beginning from January 1, 2018 till the handing over of possession of the apartments to the allottees.

The interest would be paid on the total consideration amounts paid by the Complainants to developer as per the provision of section 18 of the Maharashtra Real Estate (Regulation and Development), Registration of Real Estate Projects Registration of Real Estate Agents, Rate of Interest and Disclosures on Website Rules of 2017.

Allottees argued the developer kept extending the possession date and promised to handover possession of the said apts by Dec 2O17