MARGAO
The Real Estate Regulatory Authority, Goa (RERA) has directed a real estate developer to refund an amount of Rs 54.51 lakh to a complainant, within a period of 30 days over the developer's non-execution of a builder-buyer agreement.
The complainant had submitted before RERA that though it has been eight months since the payment was made, there’s still no builder-buyer agreement executed before accepting the payment of Rs 55 lakh, no loan was approved due to non-compliance of necessary government approvals from builder side. The complainant had stated there is a clear violation of section 13(1) of the RERA Act, which prohibits taking more than 10 per cent of the unit cost without executing a written agreement.
Goa RERA Member Vincent D’Silva has further directed the real estate developer to pay to the complainant interest @ 10.85% p.a. on the sum of 54.51 lakh as per the dates of payment till effective payment.
The developer was further directed to pay costs of Rs two lakh to the complainant, within a period of thirty days of the order, failing which it will carry interest in terms of law, till payment.
Further direction was issued to the developer for Rs 10 lakh as penalty under Section 61 of the Act for contravention of Section 4, Section 11, Section 12, Section 13 and Section 18 of the Act. The amount shall be deposited before the Authority within 60 days, failing which necessary proceedings will be initiated against the respondent.
The respondent is directed to file a compliance report of this order in the form of an affidavit, within 60 days of this order, failing which further legal action will be initiated by the Authority under the RERA Act for execution of the order.
“Discernibly, the respondent instead of refunding the said amount invested by the complainant in terms of the Builder Buyer Agreement has unfairly been using the said amount, since the payment on 08.07.2024 and thus obtained unfair advantage by not refunding the said amount, knowing fairly well that the public had objected to the said project as per the newspaper clippings, so also, some NGOs have filed writ petitions before the High Court against the project for failure to obtain mandatory approvals, suppression of material facts and false assurances”, RERA Member D’Silva stated.
