Mumbai builder made to pay 5L for fraud

[RajaRC]

Mumbai builder made to pay 5L for fraud
Rebecca Samervel, TNN, Jan 6, 2011, 03.24am IST

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Mumbai-builder-made-to-pay-5L-for-fraud/articleshow/7226076.cms

Mumbai builder|fraud case|Consumer court


MUMBAI: A consumer court order has cheered scores of home-buyers who
are misled or even duped by unscrupulous builders.

Thirteen years ago, a retired Indian Oil executive and his son booked
a flat in Goregaon (east) in a project advertised as exclusive homes
for exclusives and which promised amenities like a pool, a garden, a
community hall, a playground, a kindergarten school and jogging
tracks. However, the ground reality turned out to be entirely
different. Not only have they not got most of the amenities they were
promised but their complex is still surrounded by hutments and they do
not even have an occupation certificate (OC).

Some relief, however, has come by way of the Maharashtra State
Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission order. Compensating the Roys
for the mental harassment and agony for not getting their dream house,
it ordered the builder, Ravi Ashish Land Developers, to pay Rs 5 lakh.
In addition to this the builder was also ordered to pay Rs 1,000 per
month from August 1998 till the actual procurement of the OC. This
amounts to nearly Rs 1.48 lakh. The builder will also have to pay the
Roys Rs 25,000 towards the cost of litigation.

The Roys, father Pradip Kumar and son Anirban (a lawyer), claimed that
they had paid the entire cost of the 825-sq ft super built-up area of
the flat amounting to Rs16.5 lakh to the builder within five months
from the date of issuance of allotment letter on March 5, 1997.
According to the Roys, the builder had assured them that there would
be a seven-storey building with three wings, Arpan, Darpan and
Samarpan, and three towers, namely, Deep, Darshan and Maharaja
Retreat, and 12 row houses in the Gaurav Empire Housing Complex and
there would be a proper road and amenities like adequate street
lights, a flower-decked landscaped garden, a club house and a
community hall, playgrounds and a kindergarten school, etc.