Buyers hire rock climbers to enter flats that builder won’t hand over
By Raju Shinde and Chaitanya Marpakwar
The climbers entered the apartments in the under-construction building through the windows, broke open the doors and replaced the builders’ locks with those of the home owners.
Fed up of a builder’s refusal to handover their flats for two years, a group of home buyers on Sunday hired rock climbers to clamber up the building and enter their apartments.
Builders missing deadlines to hand over apartments to buyers after accepting full payment is common inMumbai . In many cases, builders get greedy as the prices of apartments appreciate during the construction period. They then offer to return the buyers’ money at a nominal interest rate and make a killing by selling the apartments to fresh buyers at new rates.
Close to a dozen buyers atPowai ’s Tej Society, residents of an old ground-plus-four building that was taken up for redevelopment by Ms Shwet Realtors, waited nearly two years to get their apartments. The builder, however, not only stopped the construction work six months ago, but also ceased paying owners the promised monthly rent for their transit flats.
The home owners said using rock climbers was the last option as the construction company had stopped taking their calls and had not responded to their legal notice. Using rock climbers was the only way to access their properties, the home owners said, because the entire building was fenced and entry points were guarded by security guards hired by the construction company.
“He had locked us out, now we have locked the builder out. The apartments now have our locks, said Babu Kurup, Tej Housing Society’s treasurer. The building is located on Powai’sJain Temple road.
The home owners said that the builder began redeveloping the building in 2009. He had promised handover the new apartments by mid-2014.
The developer had planned to add a few extra floors to building and sell the additional flats in the open market. “We had 1BHK apartments and were supposed to get 2BHK flats in return. But since the last couple of years, construction halted and so did the rent he used to pay for out transit accommodation. So we took forceful possession of the flats,” Kurup said. Kurup is an ex-serviceman and most of the old tenants are senior citizens.
A buyer said their next step would be to get water connections on humanitarian grounds. “We will then begin doing interior work in our apartments. We are the original residents of the building and we can’t be ousted like this. We have nowhere else to go. How long can we wait, it’s been seven years already,” he said.
The building is almost complete with a few floors remaining. The redeveloped building was to have six new apartments and two more duplex flats.
Santosh Singh, one of the directors of Shwet Realtors, said that they would file an FIR against the tenants for trespass and illegal occupation. “We will file an FIR against them. We have told the buyers that the flats will be ready in three months. There was a delay since the plot did not have conveyance. It took us four years to get the conveyance done. Despite the tight scenario in the market, we built almost 95% of the building. The old tenants have acted in haste,” Singh said and added that if the old tenants give us time we will complete the building and give them their homes.
The society, meanwhile, has written to the Powai police seeing protection.
Local NCP corporator Chandan Sharma said he is backing the home owners. “I am coordinating with the residents and helping them. I will request theBMC to give them water and drainage connections on humanitarian grounds,” Sharma said.
The Powai police said that they are looking into the society’s request for security, but said that since it is a civil matter, the home owners should approach the courts.
The climbers entered the apartments in the under-construction building through the windows, broke open the doors and replaced the builders’ locks with those of the home owners.
Fed up of a builder’s refusal to handover their flats for two years, a group of home buyers on Sunday hired rock climbers to clamber up the building and enter their apartments.
The climbers entered the apartments in the under-construction building through the windows, broke open the doors and replaced the builders’ locks with those of the home owners.
Builders missing deadlines to hand over apartments to buyers after accepting full payment is common in
Close to a dozen buyers at
The home owners said using rock climbers was the last option as the construction company had stopped taking their calls and had not responded to their legal notice. Using rock climbers was the only way to access their properties, the home owners said, because the entire building was fenced and entry points were guarded by security guards hired by the construction company.
“He had locked us out, now we have locked the builder out. The apartments now have our locks, said Babu Kurup, Tej Housing Society’s treasurer. The building is located on Powai’s
The home owners said that the builder began redeveloping the building in 2009. He had promised handover the new apartments by mid-2014.
The developer had planned to add a few extra floors to building and sell the additional flats in the open market. “We had 1BHK apartments and were supposed to get 2BHK flats in return. But since the last couple of years, construction halted and so did the rent he used to pay for out transit accommodation. So we took forceful possession of the flats,” Kurup said. Kurup is an ex-serviceman and most of the old tenants are senior citizens.
A buyer said their next step would be to get water connections on humanitarian grounds. “We will then begin doing interior work in our apartments. We are the original residents of the building and we can’t be ousted like this. We have nowhere else to go. How long can we wait, it’s been seven years already,” he said.
The building is almost complete with a few floors remaining. The redeveloped building was to have six new apartments and two more duplex flats.
Santosh Singh, one of the directors of Shwet Realtors, said that they would file an FIR against the tenants for trespass and illegal occupation. “We will file an FIR against them. We have told the buyers that the flats will be ready in three months. There was a delay since the plot did not have conveyance. It took us four years to get the conveyance done. Despite the tight scenario in the market, we built almost 95% of the building. The old tenants have acted in haste,” Singh said and added that if the old tenants give us time we will complete the building and give them their homes.
The society, meanwhile, has written to the Powai police seeing protection.
Local NCP corporator Chandan Sharma said he is backing the home owners. “I am coordinating with the residents and helping them. I will request the
The Powai police said that they are looking into the society’s request for security, but said that since it is a civil matter, the home owners should approach the courts.
