Chintels Paradiso case: Residents want solution on lines of Signature View Apartment case, demand reconstruction of flats

For representational purposes

One and a half years since an upper floor of Tower D in Chintels Paradiso collapsed onto the flats below, killing two, residents in other towers in the housing complex in Gurugram’s Sector 109 are still staring at an uncertain future.

The residents of the complex have demanded a solution along the lines of that worked out in the case of the Signature View Apartment in Delhi where the lieutenant governor ordered the Delhi Development Authority to reconstruct the flats and meet the rent outgo of residents who were obliged to find alternative accommodation during the interim.

Scores of residents of the society had also staged a protest last week at Jantar Mantar in Delhi demanding reconstruction of their flats and also sent petitions to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Puri.

Also Read: One year of Chintels roof collapse in Gurugram: An uncertain future awaits residents

“In our memorandum to the PMO and Hardeep Puri, we have requested them to intervene in the matter and direct the builder and the administration for reconstruction of our flats and payment of rent to affected homebuyers,” Vikram Gambhir, a resident of the society, told Moneycontrol.

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The issue

A portion of Tower D of the Chintels Paradiso housing society collapsed on February 10, 2022, killing two women and injuring a man. Since then, five out of the society’s nine towers have been declared “unsafe to live” by a panel from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi. Residents of towers D, E, F, G and H have been ordered by the district administration to vacate these buildings. Though most of the residents have moved to rented accommodations, there are still a few living in towers G and H.

Most of the residents who vacated their flats are paying the rent out of their own pockets, apart from the equated monthly instalments towards their home loans. In April 2023, the developer offered two options, a buyback or reconstruction of flats. However, the builder had withdrawn the reconstruction of flats option in July 2023.

Residents’ woes

Gambhir, who is now living on rent, said that the Gurugram district administration should adopt an approach as the one taken in the Signature View Apartment case and get the flats reconstructed. He alleged that the residents of the housing complex are being forced to accept the buyback offer as no other offer is available.

“After the tower collapse incident, the builder had said that if the structural safety audit of the building comes in negative, then it would reconstruct our flats. But now five towers of the society have been declared unsafe in the audit but the developer is not willing to reconstruct our homes. The builder had withdrawn the offer to rebuild our flats. Now we are compelled to choose the buyback offer which is also below market rates. On the lines of the Signature View Apartment case, we want our homes to be reconstructed and rent should be paid to us until our flats are reconstructed,” Gambhir said.

The Signature View Apartment housing complex in North Delhi’s Mukherjee Nagar was declared unsafe by IIT Delhi in 2021-22. In January 2023, Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena ordered reconstruction of flats at the same site and payment to affected residents during the construction period.

Another resident of the Chintels society, who wished not to be named, said that many co-residents want their flats reconstructed but since that option has been taken off the table for now, residents have to bear the rent as well as EMIs.

“The structural safety issues are similar in Chintels Paradiso and Signature View Apartment societies, so why are there different approaches? The Gurugram administration should ask the developer to also provide the option to rebuild our flats and pay us rent in the meantime,” he said.

Also Read: Chintels Paradiso: Gurugram administration asks developer to conduct safety audit of A, B, C towers

Responding to the developments, a Chintels India spokesperson said, "We are having discussions with RWA and the administration on this matter and are open to discussing."

There was no immediate response available from the district administration on the issue.