MAPUSA
After a long legal battle of little over three years, the owners finally got possession of their units in Prabhu Chambers, a building which was in controversy for defective construction at Angod, Mapusa.
Fifty-two owners were handed over the possession of their units after a court-appointed bailiff broke opened the locks belonging to the builder and allowed the unit holders to fix their own.
The district and sessions court in its order on June 5 had directed the bailiff to remove, open any lock or bolt or even break open the doors of the units and handover the possession of the units to the owners.
The court also permitted the unit holders to take the necessary steps to obtain occupancy certificates.
The process of handing over the possession started at 11 am on Tuesday in the presence of 40 unit holders and police personnel.
While the construction of the building started in 2012, the unit holders had purchased office space and shops in the commercial building from the controversial builder Venkatesh Prabhu Moni.
When the builder failed to hand over the possession of the units, the owners lodged their first complaint before the State Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) in November 2019.
RERA, in two separate orders “ on March 17, 2022, and Nov 30, 2022 “ directed the builder to pay interest and compensation amounting to around Rs 9 crore to the unit holders.
It also ordered the builder to hand over the lawful possession of the units to the owners within the stipulated time.
After the builder failed to pay the dues, the RERA court forwarded the matter to the Collector for recovery of the compensation and interest under the Land & Revenue arrears.
On the Collector’s direction, the builder's property at Socorro, Porvorim was attached by the Mamlatdar and later auctioned for Rs 3.3 crore which will be ratably distributed to all the complainants through the Mamlatdar of Bardez.
The process is on to attach several other properties belonging to the builder to recover the dues of the unit holders.
