Home buyers on warpath over delayed project

Y. Maheswara Reddy | NT

Many home buyers fork out extra and go for well-known names in the realty industry, hoping that they may not face problems such as delay in handover of flats or poor construction. But even a good brand name does not provide any guarantee that they won’t get shortchanged.

The recently enacted Real Estate Regulation and Development (RERA) Act has also proved to be of little use to mitigate their woes.

The latest incident is the protest staged by people who booked flats at Maple Tower situated at Binnypet in Bengaluru West. Around 100 people from Maple Park West Allottees’ Association gathered at the project site in Binnypet shouted slogans demanding the builder to honour his commitment.

They said the original date of delivery of Maple Tower was December 2019, but it has not happened till date even 27 months later. “I paid around 90 per cent of the cost of the flat. I booked the flat by seeing the name Shapoorji Pallonji, but I regret having a lot of trust in the builder. I have lodged a complaint with Karnataka Real Estate Regulatory Authority but in vain,” said Rahul Sahu, one of the investors.

They alleged that the builder has extracted 80 to 90 percent of money from the home buyers by misleading them. “Around 10 per cent of the home buyers were misguided by the builder. Taking the builder’s assurance seriously, some of them made 100 per cent payment,” said a homebuyer on the condition of anonymity.

The homebuyers suspect diversion of funds meant for the completion of Maple Tower as its construction is progressing at a snail’s pace. “The builder or his contractor is not engaging sufficient manpower to complete the ongoing works. The builder has already got three extensions from the RERA to complete the ongoing works but in vain,” said Dhirajmal Porwal, an investor.

They alleged that a representative of the builder attended Lok Adalat held on March 12 and sought another extension to complete the project. “Earlier, the builder had committed to complete the project by December 2021 but again sought one more extension that is till March 2022. Now, the builder wanted the deadline to be extended till September 2022,” said Porwal.

Coming down heavily on the inordinate delay and numerous extensions to complete the ongoing developmental works, one of the investors said the builder wanted the home buyers to sign a compromise document with January 2024 as an exit clause with 15 months no delay compensation. “We demand immediate disbursal of delay compensation at 2 percent extra highest marginal cost of funds based lending rate. We want the possession of all 552 flats by September 2022 with all committed amenities and with committed quality. In case of delay beyond September 2022, return the entire money paid with the highest MCLR plus 2 per cent from the date of payment till September 2022,” he said.

Extending support to the homebuyers, Karnataka Home Buyers Forum Sanchalak Dhananja Padmanabhachar has opined that most of the housing projects in Bengaluru have been delayed more than three years.

“Homebuyers literally on the road and protesting for their homes because the failure of the RERA in Karnataka and we, Karnataka Home Buyers suspect corruption at the RERA Karnataka which can be brought out if proper investigation being carried out by competent authority,” said Dhananjaya Padmanabhachar.