The MahaRERA in a recent order has allowed interest on delayed possession in an Andheri project to home buyers, who were promised possession in 2014. However, MahaRERA chairman Ajoy Mehta, while stating that the possession dates in agreements should prevail over the MahaRERA completion date, disallowed interest from the dates in the agreement for sale, citing that the complainant had not uploaded a copy of the agreements.
According to the complainants, which include a director of Basons Investment and his family members, they had booked several flats in the AR Avenue project in Andheri (W) and an agreement for sale was signed in December 2012; the date of possession was given as December 2014. However, despite making full payments for the flats, the complainants were not handed over possession of the flats. The developer handed over possession of some of the flats in June 2021.
The promoter, represented by advocate Avinash Pawar, stated that Occupation Certificate was not obtained on account of policy changes and delays in approvals regarding upper floors. The promoter also claimed the revised MahaRERA completion date was December 2022 and consent was given by the allottees. However, the complainants, represented by advocate Rakesh Tailor, claimed no consent was given.
In case of one complaint, Mehta stated that the complainant had taken recourse under civil laws for seeking the reliefs, therefore the said complaint was not maintainable on the ground of seeking similar relief in different forums and ‘forum shopping’ by litigants could not be encouraged.
Mehta also observed that there is a clear violation of Section 18 of the RERA Act. However, since all agreements registered are prior to MahaRERA coming into force, the possession date mentioned therein shall prevail over the MahaRERA completion date, but as complainants have not uploaded any copy of the said agreements, the proposed completion date of MahaRERA is December 2019, which shall be considered as the date on which the project was promised to be completed, Mehta said.