MUMBAI: In a bizarre case, a routine check of property papers by residents of a Prabhadevi tower left them astounded. Their developer, they found, had mortgaged the 2,103 sq yard building plot, 12 flats, the car park and basement to Abhuydaya Co-operative Bank to raise Rs 236 crore, 20 years after the structure was completed and occupied.
Flat owners of Pushpanjali, a 15-storey building near Siddhivinayak temple, dragged the builder, Avarsekar & Sons Pvt Ltd, to the Bombay high court last year. “Fortunately, the flats were released the same year, but the land and common areas still remain mortgaged to the bank,” said residents, who have urged HC to restrain the developer from selling, transferring, conveying or alienating the property or creating third-party rights.
Residents drag Mumbai builder to court for mortgaging highrise land. The Avarsekars control Unity Infra projects, once a leading infrastructure firm which had constructed the Thackeray family bungalow Matoshree at Kalanagar, Dadar TT flyover, CST subway, and more recently, renovated Mantralaya. Early this year, Unity Infra projects had filed for insolvency before the National Company Law Tribunal as it was unable to pay its debt in excess of Rs 3,000 crore.
Last month, when the residents lodged a formal complaint to the RBI, Abhyudaya Cooperative Bank washed its hand of the matter and wrote back that it had assigned the borrower’s debt to an asset reconstruction company.
Builder Kishore Avarsekar told TOI the land and flats were wrongly mortgaged to the bank in 2012. “The property was mortgaged inadvertently and on realizing, immediate steps were taken to substitute the wrongfully mortgaged flats with other property. As far as the plot and common areas are concerned, we are in talks with Abhyudaya Bank to have the same substituted,” he told the court.
The legal battle further intensified this year over the formation of a cooperative housing society, which residents said the builder was preventing them from doing so since 1997. Avarsekars, in turn, said the agreement with the flat owners stipulated forming a condominium and not a society. But flat owners have challenged this in the sub-registrar’s office, saying no such agreement exists. “Under a condominium agreement, all future benefits from the land and property go to the builder and not the flat owners,” said Shah.
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My father had booked a flat with Shree Shubh builders - Govind Samani for their project "THE ADDRESS" (now Ananda Residency) in borivali west. My father invested his life savings and took a bank loan to pay for this. Paradigm Realty has taken over the project so now it's called Ananda Residency. Mr. Parth Mehta of Paradigm Realty claims that he is not liable to give us a flat or any money as he took over the project from SRA and not Shree Shubh builders. However, Mr. Samani had submitted the list of home buyers who had invested in this project to Paradigm and SRA and other such bodies. So why didn't SRA take into consideration the previous investors. The paperwork done by Paradigm Realty looks so suspicious. The papers aren't in order. My dad since 2010 has been running from pillar to post because of this investment. Are Paradigm Realty and SRA hand in glove in this cheating case and scamming investors? At the moment Paradigm Realty has mortgaged the entire project to Capri Global, is that legal? We're trying to get in touch with other victims for this same project.
ReplyDeleteMeenaz Amreliwala