Builder to pay for delay in handing over flats

A builder will have to pay compensation of Rs 50,000 each to four buyers for delaying handing over possession of their ready flats, the Mumbai Suburban Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum has ruled.

A builder will have to pay compensation of Rs 50,000 each to four buyers for delaying handing over possession of their ready flats, the Mumbai Suburban Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum has ruled.

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A bench of JL Deshpande, forum president, and DS Bidnurkar and VG Joshi, members of the forum, held Mangal Moorti Developers (Private) Limited guilty of deficiency in service for not completing the construction on time and for delaying handing over possession of ready flats to the complainants.

“The builder or developer committed breach of provisions… of the Maharashtra Ownership Flats Act, 1963, and failed to discharge its statutory obligations arising out of a contract entered into with each of the complainants,” the bench said.

The complainants — Bharat Chavan, Vimal Surana, Soram Singh and Gokul Singh — had booked flats in Roma Banjara Tanda Co-operative Housing Society Limited at Mankhurd between September 2005 and August 2006. The builder had agreed to hand over possession of ready flats to them on various dates between August 2006 and June 2007.

The builder argued that the complainants had failed to make payments according to the schedule they had agreed to under the purchase agreement.

The forum found that the complainants delayed the payments because the builder had issued print advertisements about alleged internal disputes between the promoters and directors of the company.

The forum also considered that the Slum Rehabilitation Authority had issued a stop-work notice to the builder for beginning the construction work without obtaining proper permission, which also delayed the construction.

The forum held the builder guilty of deficiency in service and ordered him to compensate the buyers for the delay and pay each of them Rs 5,000 towards cost of the litigation.