A builder was recently found guilty of indulging in unfair practices after he changed the date in the original copy of the agreement when he had mentioned a different date in the draft agreement. Homebuyers Kishor and Sushma Surve approached Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority (MahaRERA) against the developer Mindspace Realty Pvt Ltd.

The developer misguided the homebuyers

According to the homebuyers, the builder had agreed to hand over the possession of a booked flat in Chinchwad in December 2018. The same date was even mentioned in a draft of the agreement. After that, the developer took the signature of the homebuyers without showing them the final date of possession mentioned in the agreement. When they received the original copy of the agreement, they found that instead of December 2018, the date was mentioned as December 2020.

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The developer failed to appear despite repeated notice, and hence the complaint proceeded ex parte against them. B D Kapadnis, Member, MahaRERA who was hearing the case said, "I believe the complainants to hold that the respondents (developer) promised to hand over the possession of the flat by December 2018, but without informing them, the developer incorporated the date of possession as December 2020, in the agreement. This is a deceptive practice on the part of the developer. Hence, I find that the developer is guilty of indulging in unfair practice within section 7 of RERA," noted Kapadnis in his order. 

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Unfair practices

The developer has to pay interest at the rate of 10.4% to the homebuyers on their investment of Rs 42/69 lakh from January 2019, till possession of the flat along with a sum of Rs 10,000

In a similar incident in August, Mumbai Police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) had registered an FIR against the promoters of RNA Corp for allegedly duping 13 homebuyers of Rs 6.17 crore. The group had promised them flats in its 64-storeyed residential project in Sewree. 

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