Hyderabad: More and more city builders are increasingly failing to deliver homes/flats on time leading to severe hardship to buyers.
Buyers who take bank loans to purchase houses/flats, relying on the builders’ assurances, are incurring huge losses as they have to pay EMIs on their loans while living in rented accommodations.
More and more buyers are thus approaching consumer forums against builders for redressal of their grievances and complaints are piling up in consumer courts against builders.
In the Ranga Reddy district consumer forum, 1,421 cases have been filed against builders. The Ranga Reddy district, covering the city’s outskirts, has the maximum number of residential projects, which include independent houses, villas and apartments.
The district forum has managed to resolve 1,256 cases so far, asking builders to pay compensations, but the latter simply move the courts, citing “civil disputes between them and the consumers” not related to consumer rights.
The three consumer forums in Hyderabad district have together seen 5,100 cases against builders of which they have solved 4,942.
However, the payment of compensation in most of the cases is pending. Normally, disputes that arise between consumers and builders for homes/flats worth less than Rs 20 lakh come under the purview of the district consumer forums. Those above Rs 20 lakh are handled by the state consumer forum.
In the state consumer forum, out of 543 cases that were filed this year, 350 cases were against builders for failing to meet their commitments.
Of these, maximum number of cases was against Aliens Developers Private Limited, Hill Country Properties and Gharonda Apartments.
Generally, builders give a specific date by when they will give possession of the property. They have to pay a penalty under the Consumer Protection Act and the Flat Act if they fail to do so.
But since there is no real estate regulator in the country to implement these norms strictly, the builders are taking undue advantage and going to courts, challenging the directions of the consumer forums, citing them as “civil cases” between them and consumers, which do not come under the purview of the Consumer Protection Act.
