Mumbai: MahaRERA order on Bombay Realty finally out

The muchawaited Bombay Realty order from MahaRERA Appellate authority is finally out and it is in favour of flat buyers thereby setting aside the earlier order by MahaRERA chairman which favoured the developerLawyers and real estate experts called it a landmark judgement The verdict regarding Bombay Realtys Island City Centre project in Dadar was passed on December 31 2019 and a written order had been awaited ever since Now out it directs the developer to pay flat buyers an interest of 105 per cent apart from the invested money of Rs 2 crore each and also refund the MVAT paid by the flat buyers The builder will have to shell out over R30 crore towards a refundThe flat buyers had challenged the January 9 2019 order of MahaRERA chairman Gautam Chatterjee saying that a bulk withdrawal from the project would jeopardise the entire project and impact 520 other flat buyersThe 73page judgement was passed by a twomember bench of Sumant Kolhe and S S Sandu So far MahaRERA had been saying that section 12 of RERA is not applicable retrospectively or retroactively which means MahaRERA was not allowing flat buyers to withdraw from the project despite builders not adhering to the promised design and layout of the project said chartered accountant Ramesh Prabhu adding The developer had initially assured one 85storey building and another 84storeyed one but the actual floors built were between 59 to 65 with the layout dimension and size of flats alteredAlso section 18 of RERA requires an agreement to be registered to give flat buyers interest and compensation for delayed possession In this case however there was no registered agreement between the parties despite having paid the developer around 20 per cent R2 crore towards the flat cost of over Rs 10 crore at the time of booking in 201213Maiden aspects of orderThe appellate tribunal in its verdict considered the marketing brochure of the property and email exchange too was used as evidence for the first time The developer was supposed to handover the flats between March and August 2017 which he failed to doThe appellate tribunal also for the first time directed the developer to return the VAT and service tax with an interest of 105 per cent It has also informed appellants that in case they required additional compensation for violation of sections 12 misleading advertisements section 14 change of layout and plans and section 18 delayed possession of flat under RERA they may file a separate complaint before the adjudicating officer of RERA as the regulatory authority is not empowered to grant additional compensationThe tribunal will have a say in the property until all payments are cleared which means these flats cannot be resold unless the developer clears all paymentsOther buyers to benefitOver a hundred flat buyers have registered their complaints on similar grounds before the MahaRERA in the said project With this order Prabhu said the MahaRERA and adjudicating officers will be liable to consider a violation of section 12 and 14 whenever home buyers claim refund and section 18 for delayed possession even if the agreement is not registered but the onus is on the flat buyers to prove that the project was indeed delayedMahaRERA also cannot hereafter compel flat buyers to continue in the projects citing the larger interest of other flat buyers The tribunal order also has included references from the Apex Court and Bombay High Court judgementsCant take buyers for grantedThe judgement explains the intricacies of various sections of the RERA no wonder it took a long time to be delivered after having been pronounced on December 31 2019This will be a benchmark judgement followed by lower courts and serves well for developers who take buyers for granted said senior advocate Advocate Vinod Sampat In all probability it is likely to be challenged by the developer to block flat buyers money and force them to compromise he addedSampat said that builders may also now offer the flats at a price far lower than the original price This judgement will result in some discipline amongst the builders and help flat buyers in their fight against influential builders who are in all probability supported by bureaucrats and politicians Sampat addedVoicesNainesh Sanghavi a businessmanThis order clearly shows that the RERA Act is with flat buyers and this will be an eyeopener However knowing Bombay Dyeing and the promoters we are confident that they would appeal to the Bombay High Court and Supreme Court and flay buyers would opt for arbitration settlement but not anymore I am happy with the judgementParesh Sutaria Chartered AccountantIt is very exhaustive order and could be a landmark judgement under the RERA regime more power to home buyers and clarity of the RERA actCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates