The National Consumer Redressal Commission (NCDRC) has ordered the developer Ansal Phalak Infrastructure to refund the entire amount of Rs 50.94 lakh along with interest of 12 percent to a homebuyer who had invested in its projects in Gurugram.
The builder has been given six weeks to pay the amount.
According to the plea, the homebuyer had booked a flat in Avante Floors Versalia in 2014 which the builder had promised to deliver within 36 months. The project has still not been delivered.
But when the buyer visited the project site, he found that construction had not commenced and asked for a refund of the deposit amount.
The developer had to handover possession by October 2017.
The project is registered under Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2018. The developer claims that he was ready to commence the construction on site and as a goodwill gesture ready to offer the complainant some alternative property in Gurgaon as per the available inventory.
The ground taken by the developer regarding delay in construction was that requisite plans/approvals/ permissions from the concerned authorities were awaited. However, there was no written communication to the buyer to this effect, the order notes.
The order stated that Pioneer Urban Land & Infrastructure Ltd. Vs. Govindan Raghavan, has held that the buyer should not wait for an indefinite period and, therefore, he is entitled for refund of the amount deposited by him with interest.
The complainant, therefore, is entitled for the refund of the entire amount of Rs 50.94 lakh along with simple interest of 12 percent per annum on the amount of refund from the date of respective deposits till the date of actual refund.
“While arriving at this conclusion, we have also kept in mind the principles of restitutio in integrum, which provides for restoration of an affected party to the situation which would have prevailed had no wrong or injury been sustained,” the NCDRC order said.
"This order indicates the strict approach of the courts towards the defaulting builders, be it NCDRC , RERA or NCLT. Innocent homebuyers who have invested their life savings with these builders have suffered in their hands for a while now. In my humble opinion time has now come for the builders and the real industry to introspect and find a solution to the suffering of buyers," said Aditya Parolia, the buyer’s advocate.
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