Bengaluru homebuyers left in lurch over possession

The builder, Sushil Mantri, was arrested by Enforcement Directorate over charges of money laundering in June, leaving homebuyers out in the cold.

In February 2016, a software engineer made an investment to buy a house for his ageing mother. Having lived in a two-bedroom home in the busy JP Nagar area, Santosh Patwardhan had only few options where he could take his mother out.So, he booked a flat in Mantri Serenity, a project that promised lush gardens and large walking spaces.

An under-construction building under Mantri Webcity project. (HT Photo)

Despite paying almost 90% of the project cost and lofty promises by the company marketing personnel, Patwardhan, 47, is yet to get his property’s possession.

“I booked the flat in February 2016 and it was promised that by 2019, which was already a revised timeline, I will get the possession. I have paid ₹1.01 crore so far. I bought this space because I could not take my mother out anywhere and it becomes difficult for senior citizens. I paid a premium amount for this house for the amenities it promised even though for the same price I could have picked up a site and built a bigger house,’ he said.

After a lot of wait, we lost my mother last May, he said. “I liked the playing area where my son could have spend time. But now he has passed Class 10,” he added.

Patwardhan shares his plight with several others like him who have spent their hard-earned money for projects in Bengaluru that are nowhere near completion.

The builder, Sushil Mantri, was arrested by Enforcement Directorate (ED) over charges of money laundering in June, leaving people like Patwardhan out in the cold.

Members of the Mantri Serenity Home Buyers Forum, who have given several complaints to the police as well to the ED, previously stood outside the property demanding answers.

The forum had also complained to the ED on June 17, alleging that the Bengaluru-based builder was trying to launder money through the UDS (Undivided Share of land) scam and concealment in Doddakallasandra on Kanakapura Road in the city.

Forum president Dhananjaya, who is also a home buyer in Serenity said that he has been waiting since 2012-13 but is yet to get possession.

“There are over 2700 flats and around 350 homeowners have got possession. But most of us have not got any update. We filed a case with Subramanya Police station but there has been no action. We have met the Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) commissioner but to no avail,” Dhananjaya said.

The RERA Karnataka has received around 7000 complaints so far, of which it claims to have disposed off at least half.

According to Anarock property consultants, by end of December 2021, there were approximately 5.17 lakh units (launched in 2014 or before) which were stuck in various stages of completions in the top seven cities of the country which has since come down to 4.88 lakh units as of May end in 2022. The total value of stalled housing projects is around ₹ 4.48 lakh crore. By the end of 2021, Bengaluru had around 30,000 stuck or stalled units worth ₹32,345 crore, according to Anarock.

In October 2020, Mantri developers had said that it will revive its residential project, Serenity, under the ₹25,000-crore SWAMIH (Special Window for Affordable and Mid-Income Housing) Investment Fund, formed by the Union government to complete stalled brownfield projects in the affordable housing/middle-income category, The Hindu reported.

Another project, Mantri Webcity, also suffers the same set of issues. Homebuyers said that there were several cases filed with the police, National Company Law Tribunal and RERA but there has been no respite.

Mantri developers could not be reached for comment.

MS Shankar, the national general secretary of the Forum of People’s Collective Effort, a pan-India homebuyers body, said that RERA was enacted to keep a check on builders and protect home buyers but both objectives have not been met.

He wrote to the state government also. “They (government) have not undertaken any review of the Act and enforcement and there are projects which are incomplete because of the same RERA authorities. It is a good act but lacks data, accountability....if RERA authorities are vigilant, they can create fear in builders but have failed to do so or protect homebuyers,” Shankar said.

Karnataka’s minister for housing V Somanna said that he has not been approached by any of the homebuyers and is not aware of the developments. However, he said that there were some ‘rogue’ officials.

“RERA is a central government body. They can negotiate and take other measures within the law to resolve issues. But not all builders are bad. Few are there who have made this (defrauding people) their profession,” Somanna said. He added that the government is trying to resolve the issue and reviewing such cases periodically.