Home buyer feels cheated by Goel Ganga Group

After booking a two-bedroom apartment of their choice in a project by city builder, Goel Ganga Group, a serving army officer, Major Harshinder Thakur, and his wife Preetika were shocked to know that the price of the apartment had been raised by almost 20% in six months.

The couple had booked the apartment measuring 915 square feet for Rs2,700 per square foot (PSF) by paying a token amount of Rs1 lakh in June last year in Ganga Sparsh, in Undri. But the developer hiked the PSF to Rs3,200 by January this year.

The couple was left with two choices: accept the new PSF price or take back the booking amount and cancel the booking.

“Accepting either of the two options is unfair to us. We zeroed down the project keeping several aspects in mind, including the reputation of the builder. Six months later, he can’t tell us either to pay more or cancel the booking because we won’t get another apartment for the same price in the same area. If we had known that the apartment would be beyond our budget we would have gone to another builder and not lost out on time,” argued Preetika.

The managing director of the Goel Ganga Group, Atul Goel said, “I can understand the couple’s predicament. But I am helpless as the project got delayed due to certain revision of plans that we had to apply for after the town planning department changed its by-laws. Our sanctioned plans had to be put up for revision, which took almost a year.”

Goel said the group is willing to return the booking amount with interest and have also offered them the apartment at Rs3,000 PSF, even though the present selling price is Rs3,500 PSF. “I don’t want to jeopardise our relationship with our customers,” he added.

The builder’s explanations did not cut ice with the couple, who claimed that they have already incurred a cumulative loss of about Rs50,000 as a result of the delay. “We don’t want to accept this type of behaviour since it is principally not right. We can accept his new quoted price, but we fear it would set a bad precedent and would be unethical,” reiterated Preetika.

According to city based eminent consumer activist, Sudhakar Velankar, the builder is bound by the price he quoted initially. “Under the Contract Act he is bound by the paper work he issued to the buyer wherein a price of Rs2,700 PSF is quoted specifically and for which he took the booking amount,” he said.

According to Velankar, if the builder doubted that the project was not feasible in the price quoted in June 2010, he should have issued a supplementary contract highlighting probable price escalation.

While the stand-off between the parties continues, the Thakurs have written to the Pune chapter of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India on February 1, 2011, seeking their intervention, but are yet to receive any response.

  Followings are another complaints on Era Landmarks India Ltd:

• NGT ORDERS FRESH INSPECTION OF GOEL GANGA PROJECT SITE

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Arrest warrant issued against builders - Era Landmarks India Ltd

Arrest warrant issued against builders - Era Landmarks India Ltd

The Haryana Police has issued an arrest warrant against four directors of ERA Land Mark Pvt Ltd (ERA Builders) in Gurgaon after it received several complaints from home buyers. Two FIRs have been registered against the company for fraud and cheating in Gurgaon’s Rajender Park police station.

According to police, the fraud could run into crores. Police said the home buyers have alleged that they had invested in luxury properties of the company in Gurgaon. However, the builder kept delaying the projects.

After receiving complaints, Gurgaon police informed the District Town and Country Planning Department, which found out that the builder had not even begun construction. According to a senior district administration official, most of the projects were to be constructed close to Dwarka Expressway and Sector-106.

Police said ERA Land Mark Pvt. Ltd. had launched many residential projects for which they had taken crores of rupees from home buyers.

The District Town Planner Enforcement, Gurgaon, made a written complaint to police against the directors of the company that they had violated the rules of the projects for which they had secured licences. “There are a total of 21 FIRs registered all over Gurgaon against the builders,”Rajesh Kumar, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Gurgaon, said.

Followings are another complaints on Era Landmarks India Ltd:

• Three developers booked for cheating city homebuyers
• Fraud to the tune of 1000 + crore ruppes
• Citizen's journalist exposing ERA

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Shapoorji Pallonji buys 20 acres from BPTP in Delhi

Shapoorji Pallonji Real Estate has bought 20 acres near Dwarka Expressway in New Delhi from builder BPTP to build a 2 million sq. ft affordable housing project

Mumbai/Bengaluru: Shapoorji Pallonji Real Estate, part of the Shapoorji Pallonji Group, has bought 20 acres near Dwarka Expressway in New Delhi from builder BPTP Ltd, to build a 2 million sq. ft affordable housing project, said three people familiar with the development said.

BPTP is trying to settle all dues to foreign investors JP Morgan Chase and Co. and Apollo Global Management LLC by March 2018 and will use the money from this sale to pay off the last tranche.Though the deal size is not known, land brokers estimate the value of this transaction to be over Rs150 crore. This is the second land parcel that Gurugram-based BPTP has sold as part of its larger land monetization strategy. Earlier this year, it sold 14.8 acres along Dwarka Expressway to Godrej Properties Ltd.

BPTP chairman and managing director Kabul Chawla had told Mint in July that the sale of both these land parcels would help BPTP raise around Rs500 crore.

“Shapoorji Pallonji will build affordable homes under its Joyville brand on the parcel. The residential project will be about 2 million sq. ft in size,” said one of the three people mentioned above, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity. The project is expected to cost over Rs800 crore and would be funded by a consortium of global investors which Shapoorji Pallonji had tied up with last year to build affordable homes across the country, said the second person mentioned above.

Earlier last year, the Mumbai-based developer joined hands with Standard Chartered Private Equity, International Finance Corporation (IFC)—an arm of the World Bank—and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for investing in the segment. The partnership will invest about $250 million to buy land, meet project approvals and develop infrastructure for the projects.

Both BPTP and Shapoorji Pallonji declined to comment.

Shapoorji Pallonji Real Estate, the housing development unit of the group, plans to invest Rs600 crore on buying land parcels this year to build a pipeline of projects, Mint reported on 20 June. These land parcels are in National Capital Region (NCR), Hyderabad, and Bengaluru. It is also planning to launch a project at Hinjewadi in Pune by the end of the year.

BPTP raised over $250 million from a clutch of investors who bought stake in the company during 2006-08. Most of the funds (from the land sales) would be used for giving its investors an exit, Chawla had said in the interview, while some of it will be used for its projects in Gurgaon and Faridabad.

The last two years have seen developers in NCR increasingly looking to monetise land either to reduce debt or complete their ongoing projects. In addition, the prolonged slump in real estate has forced builders to tie up with land owners and jointly develop projects.

“A few years back, a lot of developers in the region had acquired large land banks at a reasonable price. With huge projects coming up and also lot of debt piled up, the only option left for them is to sell their land parcels and use that money for completion of new projects and also reduction of the debt,” said Akash Bansal, national head, consulting at Liases Foras, a property advisory firm.

Besides, as sales are slow, most builders are looking to tie up with branded developers for joint development in a bid to improve sales, he added.

Few more complaints related to BPTP:

• Complain against BPTP "Kabul Chawala"
• Big developers, big delays: BPTP
• BPTP respond to queries over project delays

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Mortar holding together realty families crumbling - The Wadhwa Group

MUMBAI: The patriarchs toiled several decades to build large real estate empires. But, as their businesses spawned and the second generation moved in to take control, bitter rivalry and bad blood flowed.

Over the years, the booming property industry has witnessed acrimonious battles, splitting once well-knit families. Old-timers blame lack of traditional family values. Differences of opinion, jealousy and greed have pitted brash siblings against each other, fathers against sons and cousins taking their disputes to court. At times, these battles spill out into the public domain, but some quietly resolve differences among squabbling family members with dignity and in utmost secrecy. Sometimes, ambitious wives instigate their husbands against the family.

"When family grows faster than the business, the pie diminishes. The next generation will not work together and unless there is a separation plan ready, trouble will follow," says developer Vimal Shah.

Recently, Mumbai-based construction company Wadhwa Group, with 19 projects in Mumbai, Panvel and Pune, undertook what it described as a major "business restructuring". Its chairman Vijay Wadhwa carved out responsibilities and tasks for his son-in-law Navin Makhija and his relative Sanjay Chhabria. "We have not split. These are market rumours," both Makhija and Chhabria told TOI during a joint meeting last week.

People familiar with the goings-on in the Wadhwa empire, though, said Chhabria will soon chart out on his own. "Some of the group's ongoing projects and one of the firm's commercial towers in the Bandra-Kurla Complex will be handled solely by Chhabria," said insiders. Makhija and Chhabria both denied that there are differences between them.

Another major dispute to come out into the open is between developer Gopal Narang and his industrialist cousin Rajan Raheja, which threatens to wreck their Rs 2,000 crore realty firm, Windsor Realty. This company is a 50-50 joint venture between Narang and his family (comprising the Narang Group) and the Rajan Raheja family (which also includes his two sons - Akshay and Viren). Last year, Narang moved the company law board alleging the Rahejas with their considerably more financial clout want to buy out Narang Group's stake in the company at a throwaway price.

Raheja alleged that Narang colluded with employees of the company to ensure "insubordination and restricted the supply of information and reporting to the Rahejas, frustrating the functioning of the board". The battle has now moved to the Bombay high court where Narang, in his petition, said the Rahejas unilaterally stopped the sale of flats in the company's ongoing project at Oshiwara to financially oppress him.

The Hiranandani brothers, Niranjan and Surendra, split their real estate empire amicably almost a decade ago when the former's son, Darshan, entered the family business. Niranjan had then described it as "strategic readjustment".

Few more complaints related to Wadhwa Group:

• Builders not liable to pay for ‘justified’ delays: MahaRERA
• Sanjay Chhabria: Mumbai realty's go-to man
• Born of a scam, it's now 23 storeys high

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Builder of India's tallest residential building fined Rs 162 crore for violations

The controversial project has been embroiled in litigation for the past four years after NGO Janhit Manch dragged the developer, Shree Ram Urban Infrastructure Ltd (SRUIL), to court for large-scale violations.

The developer of Palais Royale, India’s tallest residential building (294 m), will have to pay the BMC Rs 162 crore as premium and penalties for constructing a 15-storey public parking tower at Worli Naka without permissions. Municipal commissioner Ajoy Mehta last week ordered the levy after the Bombay high court directed the commissioner to decide its fate following a petition challenging its legality.

The controversial project has been embroiled in litigation for the past four years after NGO Janhit Manch dragged the developer, Shree Ram Urban Infrastructure Ltd (SRUIL), to court for large-scale violations. The NGO said the public parking tower is illegal.

Under the state government’s cross-subsidy policy, the developer received permission to build a 15-storey parking tower in 2010, which it has to hand over free of cost to the BMC for public parking. In return, the developer will receive additional construction rights in the form of incentive floor space index (FSI) for the residential tower named Palais Royale.

However in 2011, the BMC changed its policy, restricting the height of public parking lots up to four floors. By then, SRUIL had procured construction permission only up to the plinth level. However, it continued to build the entire parking tower before Janhit Manch challenged the legality on the grounds that sanction was only till the plinth level. The municipal corporation too directed the developer to build the parking tower according to the new policy (four floors).

As much as 74% of the total built-up area (5.88 lakh sq ft) of the skyscraper has been shown as fire refuge area. This was sanctioned by the then chief fire officer when the building plans were approved about eight years ago. Mehta wants the fire refuge area reduced to around 30%; Mehta's predecessor Sitaram Kunte had ordered that they be restricted to just 4% of the built-up area. Mehta also ordered that large refuge areas outside each apartment in the 56-storey tower be punctured or blocked. This will prevent flat owners from illegally amalgamating the areas -adjoining the bedroom and drawing room --to the apartments.

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Possible Rs 300 cr scam in Andheri redevelopment project

Possible Rs 300 cr scam in Andheri redevelopment project

City’s well-known builder Rustomjee is under the lens for alleged irregularities in its redevelopment project at DN Nagar in Andheri. This comes after State Housing Minister Prakash Mehta accepted that prima facie, there seems to be a scam running into Rs 300 crore.

Replying to the attention motion raised by Congress MLA Naseem Khan, Mr Mehta said the Economic Offence Wing (EOW) has filed an FIR against Rustomjee builders, and the government is seeking final report of the investigation within 15 days.

In 2005, Vaidehi Akash Housing was chosen to redevelop eight buildings consisting of 480 flats. The company handed over the responsibility to Rustomjee Realty. As per the allegations, the company sold the commercial plots to around 300 people, but failed to handover possession. In addition, around 17,500 square meter FSI was added illegally, which led to irregularities worth hundreds of crores.

The builder was supposed to handover the possession to 480 original habitants of eight buildings by Gudhi Padwa (April 8). However, Mr Mehta informed that flat owners will now have to wait till Diwali. “Prima facie, there is an indication that irregularities have taken place. The EOW will submit its report, and action will be taken accordingly. Meanwhile, the government has decided to stay the construction on saleable area,” said Mr Mehta.

Mr Khan demanded the arrest of owners of Rustomjee, pointing out that the Housing Minister had himself acknowledged irregularities in the scheme. NCP leader Jayant Patil informed the assembly that the EOW has already recommended action against the builders. “Since the minister is not aware of this development, I assume that it is my duty to inform you that there is no need to wait for the report as it has already been submitted,” he said.

Leader of Opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil asked the government reasons for not taking action against the builder. Mr Mehta said he was not aware about the completion of investigation by the EOW, and that he will gather complete information and initiate action at the earliest.

Read listed news related to Rustomjee Builder :

• FIR HEAT ON REALTOR IN JUHU BUILDING SCAM
• More than 300 buyers doing protest against builder

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Barrage of FIRs against duped Faridabad investors

Like hundreds of middle-class families, a bunch of multinational company employees settled in Delhi and its neighbourhood too had invested their hard-earned money in a residential project in Faridabad eight years ago in the hope of owning a home, but the developer never completed the project siphoning off several crores. And when they decided to fight against the injustice, refusing to be bogged down by threats, all of a sudden First Information Reports started cropping up against them at different police stations in far-off Agra.

The first FIR (138/13) at the Saiya police station was registered on November 23 last against Anupam Uppal, consultant with a leading IT technology firm, and Girish Kaul, a Ph.D. degree holder, who works for a reputed education foundation, on charges of duping an Agra resident of Rs.5 lakh in a land deal, trespassing and issuing threats. Both the “accused” are residents of Delhi.

Soon, another FIR was lodged at the Malpura police station on February 13 this year with a harsher charge of attempt-to-murder accusing Faridabad-based Saurabh Saraswat and Delhi residents Sanjay Nagpal and Jitender Thakur of duping a duo of Rs.4 lakh in a land deal and opening fire at them from a country-made pistol. While Mr. Thakur is an engineer with a Telecom MNC and Mr. Saraswat a technology consultant with a leading US MNC, Mr. Nagpal is a legal adviser and company secretary of a leading mining group.

The coincidence does not end with both the FIRs being lodged in Agra and containing similar charges, all the five “accused” are office-bearers of the 750-member Triveni Faridabad Allottees’ Association (TFAA) that has been waging a legal battle against Triveni Infrastructure Development Co. Ltd. for the past three years seeking possession of their flats in the company’s over-delayed projects in Sector 78 and 89 of Faridabad. Incidentally, the company’s directors Sumit Mittal and Madhur Mittal are also residents of Kamla Nagar in Agra.

Claiming innocence, Mr. Saraswat said the “accused” had strong evidence to prove that the charges against them were concocted. The passport records of Mr. Uppal show that he was on a three-month tour of Europe on the said date of crime. As for himself, Mr. Saraswat said: “I was present in office in Gurgaon as per the electronic attendance records and CCTV footage on the said date of crime. In fact, I have not been to Agra for years.” Uttar Pradesh Human Rights Commission has also sought a probe into the matter and directed the IG Police (Agar Zone) to conduct an inquiry and submit a report.

More news related to Triveni Infrastructure Development :

• Talk with retired D.I.G. of B.S.F. on being victim of Triveni Infrastructure fraud
• Retired D.I.G. of B.S.F. on being victim of Triveni Infrastructure fraud
• Unscrupulous builders slap false charges, intimidate homebuyers
• Triveni Infrastructure fraud busted, no possession even after 11 year
• Triveni investors' protest
• Triveni Infrastructure fraud all buyers

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