Even after spending between Rs 70 lakh and more than a crore, around 200 families in Gurugram suddenly find themselves homeless. The homes they poured their life’s savings in and moved in barely five years ago are no longer liveable. The families are angry and desperate.
Days after two women were killed when one of the apartment blocks in Chintels Paradiso in Gurugram’s Sector 109 collapsed, 36 families have been forced to live in alternative accommodation in the housing complex.
Another 140 families have 12 days to vacate their homes in the state-run NBCC-built Green View project in Sector 39-D. A safety audit found their home unsafe to live in.
To compound their misery, Chintels and Green View homebuyers have to continue paying EMIs and also the maintenance bills for the homes they cannot live in.
While Chintels was built by a private company, Green View was constructed by a state-run firm but the problems faced by the homebuyers are the same.
Shoddy work, cheap construction material, structural damage and builder-authorities nexus—the list of complaints is long.
“Builders have been flouting all norms, including quality of construction. What is most unfortunate is that even a government entity has been found to have compromised on quality.
“Repeated incidents such as these have exposed the authorities who have not done their job. This would not have been possible without the nexus of all concerned authorities,” said Abhay Upadhyay, Forum For People's Collective Efforts (FPCE).
Gurugram is a big residential real estate market that has attracted homebuyers as the city emerged as an IT hub. Several multinationals have their offices in the Delhi suburb and demand for housing has only grown.
But incidents like Chintels Paradiso and Green View have once again put the spotlight on the goings-on in this busy real estate market.
Early warnings ignored
Following the February 10 Chintels Paradiso collapse that left several homes damaged, two first information reports were registered. One against Chintels’ chairman Ashok Solomon and the other against the builder, Chintels India Private Ltd, a contractor and five others engaged in the housing project.
Solomon has been accused of death by negligence. The second FIR accuses the builder of fraud, dishonestly inducing delivery of property, forgery and criminal conspiracy.
“The mishap has proved that the certificate of structure engineer and proof consultant and work of the contractor is not creditworthy and rather fraudulent…,” says the FIR.
Manoj Singh, who moved into the complex in 2018, told Moneycontrol that he chose the project because it was around 6 km from his workplace. Singh is devastated. His life’s savings went down with the building that crashed like a pack of cards.
“The builder has deliberately put our lives at risk. We demand immediate arrest of the builder and all the other people who were part of the nexus—contractors, officials who granted the occupation certificate to the project, and police officials who did not act on several of our complaints filed in the past,” he said.
Around 500 buyers are planning to take legal action and seek a refund from the builder at the current market rate of Rs 8,000 per sq ft, cost of interior design and interest at the rate of 18 percent, which the builder charges from homebuyers in case of default, as compensation, Singh said.
The signs were there but were ignored.
A ceiling in front of the lift lobby collapsed in July 2021. It should have been a wake-up call for authorities.
Nothing came of a structural audit, Singh said, adding a group of homebuyers got together for a private third-party audit but that effort was nixed.
“We demand that if a structural audit of the buildings is conducted this time around, it should be monitored by the court,” Singh said.
Around 36 families that lived in the damaged tower have been moved to the other eight towers. “The builder and the DTCP officials have arranged for temporary accommodation,” he said.
“It was a coincidence that the incident took place in one tower. Right now we all fear for our lives and the fact that other towers may meet the same fate. We pray to the court to punish the guilty and fully compensate us for the mental agony that we are going through,” Singh added.
On February 18, the Gurugram authorities offered to facilitate a refund to 64 flat-owners of tower D. Gurugram District Commissioner Nishant Yadav said the details for the refund would be worked out soon.
The builder would pay the moving charge and the rent for the residents who wanted to move out, Yadav said. An inquiry report would soon be sent to police, he said.
A group of Chintel Paradiso residents also met police commissioner Kala Ramachandaran demanding the arrest of the builder and others accused.
In an official statement, Chintels said, “This is an extremely unfortunate incident and we have taken it very seriously as the safety of our residents is our utmost concern. Upon preliminary investigations, we have come to know that the mishap occurred during renovation work by a contractor being carried out by a resident in his apartment.”
The statement said a structural audit was conducted last year when complaints first came in. A second audit would be done at the earliest and if structural damage is found, buyers would be compensated or accommodated “while necessary repair work is completed”.
The housing project was contracted to the “reputed Bhayana Builders” after a stringent due diligence process, it said.
The company said affected residents were being accommodated in sister projects and it was monitoring the situation.
RS Bhath, district town planner, enforcement, has been quoted by the media as saying that they were trying to address the issues residents were facing and a team of 60 people had started repairs in towers A, B, C, and J.
“All the work is taking place under my supervision and we will ensure the residents get all basic facilities before shifting,” he said.
The department had requested the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi to conduct safety audits of the towers that were occupied, Bhath said.
Unsafe houses
Another such audit by an IIT-D team has left several families in a lurch 11 km away. On February 16, deputy commissioner Nishant Kumar Yadav asked the residents of the Green View complex in Sector 37 D to vacate the premises after an IIT-D team declared the structure unsafe.
He also ordered the developer NBCC to provide alternative accommodation to the residents for the duration and bear the cost of transportation, shifting and rentals.
NBCC was also asked to refund the money, with interest, to the homebuyers who do not wish to live in the society.
At present, 140 families live in the residential complex—100 families in the flats allotted to the economically weaker sections and 40 in the other apartments.
NBCC has offered apartments in other projects and agreed to pay rent till houses are safe to move in again.
The buyers want the amount they paid for their units to be refunded along with interest at the rate of 15 percent, interior costs as well as registration charges.
“We are not happy with the suggestion to vacate our flats by March 1 as it will be difficult to find rented flats in such a short period,” said G Mohanty, president, Association of Apartment Owners (AOAO), NBCC Green View.
The district administration should obtain a legally binding assurance from the builder to refund the amount at 15 percent interest, cost of registration and interior work as well as Rs 25 lakh for the harassment and agony endured in the last four years, said Mohanty.
According to homebuyers, the work on 786 flats started in 2012 and these were to be delivered by May 2015. Out of the total, NBCC could sell only 263 units. The remaining 523 units remain unsold.
Shoddy work
Residents said NBCC issued a notice on October 3, 2021, asking them to vacate within 15 days for “comprehensive repair” works on all the buildings, without offering alternative accommodation.
The notice, a copy of which has been reviewed by Moneycontrol, said repairs would necessitate shutting down of essential services.
NBCC didn’t say why “comprehensive repairs” were needed nor did it elaborate on the safety concerns, Mohanty said.
A second notice on October 13, 2021, said considering the condition of the structures, vacating the premises was “inevitable in view of safety aspects”. The notice, which came after IIT-D submitted a follow-up report, asked residents to move out by November 10, 2021.
Moneycontrol has a copy of the report that IIT-D submitted in October after an inspection in September.
It said a significant amount of additional deterioration appeared to have occurred in the buildings since the last visit. New cracks were observed in the slabs of buildings that were unoccupied. The pattern of the cracks was seen to be consistent with the sagging of the slabs.
At another location, the reinforcement was found to have been broken due to corrosion.
“At many other locations as well, the bars were seen to have been reduced to a diameter of 2 to 3 mm. Excessive corrosion was observed at all locations where the reinforcement was exposed in the slabs,” the report said.
A follow-up visual inspection of the buildings indicated continued deterioration at an accelerated pace.
“It is recommended that the buildings must be evacuated at most within two months in the interest of the safety of the residents and that the client must reconsider the feasibility of the repair work,” it said.
After the first notice on October 3, 2021, homebuyers asked NBCC for a refund.
“A detailed proposal of the refund was presented by AOA (association of apartment owners) along with interest and other components to NBCC. This included registration charges, the interest of 15 percent on our investment, interior costs, etc. If they were really concerned, they should have reached a settlement with the residents then. After four months, we could have come to a settlement but nothing was done,” Mohanty said
As many as 73 buyers have since approached the NCDRC, demanding a refund.
On December 27, the court asked NBCC to file a reply and details of the refund plan within four weeks. The case is to be heard on February 22.
“There has been no response by NBCC so far. They are clear about the eviction plan but not about the refund,” Mohanty told Moneycontrol.
Responding to Moneycontrol’s queries, NBCC said, "NBCC had got structural audit of NBCC Green View at 37 D, Gurugram conducted by IIT-Delhi. As per the report of IIT Delhi, it was declared that these flats are unsafe and recommended for vacation. As far as the issue of refund to Homebuyers of NBCC Green View is concerned, the same is under consideration by NBCC."
‘Crack the whip, now’
Not just the builders even authorities, including those from the Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA), should be held accountable.
Harassment of homebuyers needs to be stopped with exemplary punishment and a strict action against the builders and the authorities would act as a deterrent, Upadhyay of FPCE said.
Rajiva Singh, President, NOFAA, said the responsibility had to be of the developers and the administration, not the apartment owners. “Just because no proper monitoring has been done by regulatory bodies during the construction phase, we cannot shift the responsibility to AOA or the residents”, he said.
Discover the latest Business News, Sensex, and Nifty updates. Obtain Personal Finance insights, tax queries, and expert opinions on Moneycontrol or download the Moneycontrol App to stay updated!
Find the best of Al News in one place, specially curated for you every weekend.
Stay on top of the latest tech trends and biggest startup news.
