Homebuyer eligible for interest on delay in possession: MahaRERA

Homebuyer eligible for interest on delay in possession: MahaRERA

Godfrey Pimenta, the homebuyer's advocate told The Free Press Journal that MahaRERA in its December 2019 order had denied the homebuyer to claim interest on delayed possession of flat as the agreement of sale was not registered.

Sweety AdimulamUpdated: Monday, June 20, 2022, 09:47 AM IST
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In a landmark judgement passed by Maharashtra Real Estate Appellate Tribunal (MahaRERA), it accepted the contention that the homebuyer is eligible for interest on delay in possession of booked flat even if the agreement of sale is not registered.

Godfrey Pimenta, the homebuyer's advocate told The Free Press Journal that MahaRERA in its December 2019 order had denied the homebuyer to claim interest on delayed possession of flat as the agreement of sale was not registered.

And since the developer accepted 20 per cent of the flat consideration value from the homebuyer it only directed the said developer to register the agreement of sale within 30 days under Section 18 of RERA Act. As it refused to pay the interest on received amount to the homebuyer the order was challenged in the tribunal, Pimenta informed.

The Appellate Tribunal of Coram Shriram R. Jagtap, and SS Sandhu passed the order on June 17 this year setting aside MahaRERA's impugned 2019 order and directed the builder to pay the interest at the rate of State Bank of India highest Marginal Cost Lending Rate plus 2 per cent on the amount paid by the homebuyer from January, 2018 till the actual possession of flat to be handed over.

In addition, it ordered the developer to pay Rs 10,000 as cost to the home buyer. The matter is about homebuyers Jervis and Rose Anthony Creado, both from same family who approached MahaRERA following the delay in handing over the possession of booked flat in project named 'Aishwarya Heights' located at Village Majas, Andheri for a consideration amount of Rs 80 lakh.

The developer of said project did agreement of sale on 100 rupees stamp paper which was not registered with the registrar's office.

In fact, the buyer stated that the developer had issued allotment letter in February 2017. They also claimed that they paid entire consideration amount to the developer.

Wherein after few days in February 2017 the developer had executed unregistered agreement for sale with them and agreed to handover possession of the subject flat by December, 2017. However, the developer neither registered agreement for sale nor handed over possession of suit flat to complainants therefore they filed complaint with MahaRERA seeking relief through interest payments.

Which was denied and then they approached Tribunal for same. The developer of this project whereas alleged that the agreement for sale does not confer any right to the complainants as it was an arrangement between them and therefore the same has not been registered. Moreover, they haven't received entire money from the buyer.

It further claimed that prior to fillng of the instant complaint they had applied for extension of date of completion of project till December, 2019 and denied of the complainant paying any stamp duty, registration and meter charges.

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