Special news. Jaipur
Rajasthan Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RAJ-RERA) has taken a major and precedent-setting action against promoters’ legal arbitrariness and illegal possession letters in the real estate market. Decision Has narrated. The Authority has clarified that it is completely illegal to pressurize the buyer to take possession without obtaining ‘Completion Certificate’ from the competent authority. RERA member Rashmi Gupta ‘Ashoka-Cosmos Greens’ In the case of the project, strict instructions have been issued to pay 10.80% annual interest in favor of the allottee and hand over the actual possession of the flat along with the amended legal documents, defying the technical objections of the builder. This case pertains to allottee Narendra Saini and co-allottee, who had booked flat number A-103 on the first floor in Tower-A of this group housing project located in Bhiwadi (Alwar). The ‘Builder Buyer Agreement’ (BBA) was executed between the two parties on January 18, 2016, the total price of which was fixed at ₹52,83,852.
The allottees had paid a huge sum of ₹49,17,481, more than 95 per cent of the total price, to the promoter between December 2015 and February 2017 through bank loans and their own resources. Under the agreement, the promoter was to hand over valid physical possession of the flat by January 18, 2020, in which he completely failed.
During the hearing, the promoter ‘Mrs. Cosmos Infra Engineering India Limited’, playing legal tricks, argued that this is the third complaint of the allottee and the previous two complaints have been rejected on technical grounds, hence this case is not hearable under ‘Res Judicata’ (Principle of Prior Justice). Apart from this, the builder claimed that he had issued the possession letter on 4 September 2019 itself. The RERA authority rejected all these arguments of the builder outright.
The member gave the legal ruling that since the earlier cases were rejected not on the basis of merit but only due to technical and procedural flaws, the buyer cannot be deprived of justice.
While exposing the promoter, the authority found in the records that the builder had received the official completion certificate (CC) of the project on 30 June 2021 (registered on the web portal on 5 July 2021). In such a situation, the possession letter issued by the builder on 4 September 2019 was completely premature, illegal and misleading. Since the project has now been completed and a major part of the amount has been invested in the project, RERA, keeping in mind the judicial principles of the Supreme Court, rejected the demand for refund but imposed severe financial damages on the promoter.
The authority has given orders while disposing of the matter. Since the project has now been completely completed, the allottee Narendra Saini is directed to take physical possession of flat number A-103. Promoter ‘Cosmos Infra’ has been ordered to pay late interest at the rate of 10.80% per annum on the entire amount of ₹ 49,17,481 deposited by the allottee for the period from the scheduled possession date (18 January 2020) to the date of receipt of completion certificate (30 June 2021).
The builder will have to correct and hand over the original contract letters of the allottees which were taken earlier for improvement. This accumulated interest amount will be adjusted against any valid outstanding final installment of the allottee and the remaining net amount will have to be settled by the concerned party. RERA has given 45 days time to the promoter for complete compliance of this order from the date of its uploading on the web portal.
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