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The Maharashtra Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has directed two Mumbai-based builder firms to refund INR 1.05 crore, along with interest, to a couple after failing to deliver a flat despite receiving full payment and subsequently selling the unit to another buyer. The order, passed ex parte in the past week, also requires the builders to pay compensation and litigation costs. The dispute stems from a residential booking made in 2013, which was later shifted to another project after construction failed to commence as promised. The commission held that the builders' conduct amounted to deficiency in service, unfair trade practices and a breach of consumer trust, while highlighting the prolonged financial and emotional hardship suffered by the complainants over more than a decade.
The Maharashtra Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has directed two Mumbai-based builder firms to refund INR 1.05 crore, along with interest, to a couple after finding that they failed to deliver a residential flat despite receiving full payment and later sold the same unit to another purchaser. The order, passed ex parte in the past week after the respondents failed to appear before the commission, also awarded compensation and litigation costs, concluding that the complainants had endured financial loss and prolonged distress over more than a decade.
The commission issued the order against Universal Housing & Infrastructure and Universal Construction, as well as Saquib Shaikh Ahmed Mukadam and Sajid Shaikh Ahmed Mukadam, who managed the two companies. According to the commission, the respondents did not file their response despite being served notice, resulting in the matter being decided in their absence.
As detailed in the complaint, the husband was employed as an accountant with a Kuwait-based company, while his wife worked as a lecturer at a junior college in Raigad. The couple initially booked a flat in the respondents' Dongri Project in 2013 by paying INR 40 lakh. The developers had indicated that construction would be completed within 36 months.
However, when construction did not commence within the promised period, the builders persuaded the couple to transfer their investment to another development, Bay View, located in Mazgaon. Acting on those assurances, the buyers paid the balance consideration, taking their total payment to INR 90 lakh by September 2018.
The complainants later discovered that the flat allotted to them in the Bay View project had already been sold to a third party. When they confronted the builders, they were allegedly assured that the money would be refunded. According to the complaint, several cheques issued towards repayment were dishonoured because of insufficient funds.
The commission noted that the parties subsequently executed a memorandum of understanding in June 2021, under which the builders acknowledged a total liability of INR 1.25 crore. Although INR 20 lakh was paid in 2023, the remaining amount was not settled.
In its order, the commission observed that the builders had deprived the complainants of their life savings through repeated assurances that were not honoured. It further held that shifting the buyers between projects, issuing cheques that were repeatedly dishonoured and selling the allotted flat to another purchaser constituted gross abuse of trust, deficiency in service and unfair trade practices.
The commission also recorded the physical, emotional and financial hardship suffered by the couple, who had travelled more than 150 km from their residence in Mangaon to the builders' offices in Mumbai on numerous occasions, only to receive evasive responses and unfulfilled commitments.
The builders have been directed to refund INR 1.05 crore to the complainants with interest at 10% per annum calculated from June 2021. In addition, the commission awarded INR 50,000 as compensation for mental agony, physical inconvenience and financial distress, along with INR 25,000 towards litigation expenses.
Source - PTI
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