Developer ordered to pay Rs 43 lakh for possession delay

The National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has reaffirmed that without the requisite occupancy certificate (OC) neither can any apartment be legally offered for occupation by a builder nor can the purchaser legally occupy the flat. The commission directed the Mumbai-based Kamla Ankur Developers to pay Rs 43.18 lakh as damages to Chaya Pradeep Bavdekar and two others from Pune for failure to obtain an OC after the March 31, 2012, date for delivery of possession of a flat in a Mumbai scheme lapsed.

According to the order, the compensation will continue to grow at Rs 90,000 per month beyond June 30 till the date the OC is obtained and a copy is provided to the complainants. The commission has also directed the company to obtain the completion and occupancy certificates on or before December 31.

The complainants had argued that they could not occupy the flat in the absence of an OC which the developer failed to obtain from the BMC. As such, the developer had failed to deliver legal possession of the flat, they contended.

Justice V K Jain, who presided over the bench that heard the complaint, held on June 27: “By not obtaining the requisite OC on or before March 31, 2012, the opposite party (developer) committed a deficiency in service rende red to the complainants. Hence, the opposite party is liable to pay suitable compensation to the complainants till the time the OC is obtained.“

The complainants, who reside at Vikramsheela housing society at Panchavati in Pashan, Pune, had entered into an agreement with Kamla Ankur Developers to purchase a flat for over Rs 1.82 crore in a redeveloped scheme on a land owned by Avdhut cooperative society in Mumbai. According to the agreement executed on January 20, 2011, possession of flat was to be delivered by March 31, 2012. The complainants made payments specified in the all payments specified in the agreement. The flat was made available to them on January 17, 2013, for the purpose of fit outs, but the developer had not obtained an OC and the complainants were unable to occupy the flat. Eventually, they moved the national commission seeking directions to the developer to obtain the OC and demanding Rs49.88 lakh compensation with interest.

The bench dismissed the developer's argument that an regularization application for deviations in the building was pending before the BMC.