Flat handover delay, missing amenities to cost builder 2L

Nitin Yeshwantrao TNN 

Thane:Abuilder hasbeen fined Rs 2 lakh for the delay in handing over possession of threeflats to the two buyers and non-compliance of a written promise to provide basic amenities to the residentsof HillPalacebuilding near Upvan Lake here. The Thane District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum also directed the builder, M/s Patsons Engineers, to pay Rs 10,000 towards cost of legal expenses borne by the two buyers and an additional Rs 1,000 for failing to provide the piped gas line to their flats as the builder had promisedinitially in 2006. 
    President of the consumer forum, R B Somani, and member Jyoti Iyer ruled in favour of the two residents—Priyank Kumar and Kiran Madhav Prasad-—who had dragged the builder for lapses. 
    It is learnt that the builder had assured to hand over the flatsin May2006 and alsooffered a string of amenities, including asafety door, power back-up andborewell facility within the premises of the high-rise overlooking the Yeoor forest in Thane(West). 
    The two had approached the builder in Feb2006 andwereconvinced into buying three flats of different sizes. An upfront payment of Rs 10.80 lakh, Rs.17.55 lakh and Rs.10.80 lakh respectively was made to the builder, who assuredthem of flat possession by May 2006. Besides a collective Rs 39.15 lakh paid by the duo to the builder, they also shelled out Rs 2.13 lakh towards miscellaneousexpenses. 
    Thirty-three months after the promiseddateof possession, the builder handed over keys to the flats in April 2009. Not just that,theflatswere a far cry from what was promised—safety door, power back-up, borewell, etc were missing from the new flats and neither was any possession certificate or an Occupation Certificateissued. 
    The Forum ruled it as “unfair trade practice and sheer deficiency in services’’ on part of thebuilder.


Source:::: The Times of India, 03-10-2012, p.04. http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Client.asp?Daily=TOIM&showST=true&login=default&pub=TOI&Enter=true&Skin=TOINEW