Group of Flat Owners All Set to File PIL against Builders NOT Adhering to KAOA Laws & Regulations
Group of Flat Owners All Set to File Public Interest Litigation (PIL ) against THOSE Builders NOT Adhering to Building Laws & Regulations as mentioned in Karnataka Apartments Ownership Act 1972 (KAOA ). A group of Mangaluru Flat Owners have also decided to form a Registered Welfare Association in collaboration with Bengaluru Flat owners Association, to help aggrieved flat owners and attend to their grievance .
Mangaluru : Following close on its heels, after Team Mangalorean had published this report “Conned Owners & Buyers Unite to Fight Flat Builders, Who Abused KAOA Laws & Duped Buyers” in Mangalorean.com, on 7 July 2019, after a bevy of Flat Owners met for the FIRST on Sunday, 7 July 2019, time to express their grievances about the harassment and cheating faced at the hands of SOME of the Builders, they met once again at a private residence on 4 August 2019, to once again follow up on the issues discussed during the First meeting, and also chalk out further plans as to how they can tackle the issues faced at the hands of builders.
Lately, the Smart City-Mangaluru has witnessed incredible growth in its real estate over the past few years having earned the distinction to house some of the best realty developers. However, the real estate revolution in the city is increasingly being marred by a rush of complaints and grievances from buyers against several property developers. There are complaints against almost every builder today because of their attitude of considering buyers as return-hungry investors who only care about the latest price of their property and not the performance of the builder.
The complaints are mainly related to possession of the property, extra demand of money, buildings not matching with the approved plan, maintenance-related issues, occupation certificates, builders have not followed the KAOA Act, completion certificate, bad construction quality, norms ignored by builders and non-availability of electric infrastructure among other issues. Major reasons for the buyers feeling betrayed and cheated is that the entire process of agreement signing while buying a flat in the national capital region (NCR) is a bit unclear. The builders usually sell the units to brokers who will only give you partial/superficial information like the number of units, apartments, etc initially until you sign the agreement.
Addressing the two dozen of concerned flat owners who had attended the second meeting, Ms Veena Shantharam Prabhu, a flat owner in Mauriksha Park Apartments in the City, who had faced harassment at the hands of the Builder and Apartment Association there, and who is leading this fight for justice said, “Every middle class person wants to have his dream house and proper shelter to his family. For which he works hard and saves Paisa by Paisa to achieve his goal of having good shelter. The money hungry business people have made business of selling the dreams called real estate. Government has made many rules and regulations to control such business activity ignorant buyers fall in to the trap by making hurry decisions without going in to the legality of such laws and regulations and end up with more troubled situation and having no proper title for the property they buy”.
“Most of the time they end up with blaming their fate but hardly they demand for the accountability. As the city started growing vertically the problems are more aggravated and problems are also compounded. Majority try to settle with incomplete structures and no proper documents. The government has enacted many laws to protect the interest of home buyers especially vertical home buyers (Flats) The Karnataka Ownership Flats (Regulation Of The Promotion Of Construction, Sale, Management And Transfer) Act, 1972 (KOFA) and Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 (RERA) and to manage and maintain such structures and infrastructures enacted The Karnataka Apartment Ownership Act, 1972 (KAOA) for free hold, heritable and transferable. It has been observed no builder has followed KOFA/RERA and KAOA ” added Ms Prabhu.
She further said, “KOFA and RERA offers complete protection to the investors of such home buyers, like- 1. Agreement of sale ; 2. Accounts of the money paid; 3. Deed of Declaration for the apartment; 4. No change in plan once agreement is done; 5. Formation of Association ; 6. Maintenance of building till the builder obtains all clearness; 7. Transfer of land title to the association of flat takers :
Safety No 1 Agreement of Sale: Agreement of sale which is mandatory builders do make the prospective home buyers to sign such agreement. But never registers such agreement. If the agreement is not registered it do not have any value. If the home buyers insist to register which offers protection of the investment and it creates lien on the property, which cannot be cancelled unilaterally.
Safety No 2 : Accounts: The home buyer paid money has to be kept in escrow account and has to be utilized for the purpose for which it is collected. This monitoring has to be done by Dy Registrar of Co-operative society Under KOFA. In RERA approved projects builder has to submit monthly returns to the RERA. If these are monitored properly by the authorities it offers 100% safety to the investors
Safety No 3: Deed of Declaration (DoD): once builder obtains the building plan and proposes to sell the flats will have to submit deed of declaration consisting of original land title, Holding, No of Floors, No of Flat in each such floors, Infrastructures to be provided and general guidelines( Bye law) for the maintenance.
Safety No 4: No change in plan: once the agreement of sale signed builder is not empowered to change the initially agreed plan without consent of all the agreement holder.
Safety No 5: Formation of Association: once the minimum people to form a cooperative society or company signed agreement of sale builder has to form cooperative society or company of the flat takers (KOFA) so that builder can transfer common area, assets of the building and the land title in the name of cooperative society / company.
Safety no 6: maintenance before handover: builder will have to maintain the building till he obtains all clearances and transfers the assets to the association/ company of flat takers
Safety no 7: Transfer of land title and assets: initially all the assets and land title are in the name of the builder once the builder obtains all the clearances along with occupancy certificate has to transfer to the association of flat takers (Cooperative society or company)
Safety no 8: Carryout day to day activity accountably: the byelaw is already registered along with the deed of declaration(DoD) methodology for collective maintenance and amount to shared for expenses no flat owners can escape from his responsibility”.
“It is observed most of the builders may carryout safety no 3 that is Deed of Declaration but it will not have value until builders performs his duty as per safety no 5 that is formation of Cooperative society or company ( corporate body) followed by safety no 7 that is transfer of assets and land title to the association of flat owners or the company (Corporate body) . Almost all the flat owners across Karnataka are suffering for clear ownership of the property which they own.
This can only be addressed by understanding the rights and responsibility of the flat owners and accountability of the builders”.
Every safety norm for the flat buyers there are statutory authorities, by representing their cases to the appropriate authority such rights of the flat owners and accountability of the builders can be achieved. People feel cheated without knowing their rights. If at all just demanding for safety no 1 registration of agreement for sale is exercised builder would not play failing which if insisted for safety No 5 formation corporate association people would not face title and accountability problem”.
BCFOWA and its associated Associations are securing safety to the existing flat owners and prospective flat owners. By guiding the aggrieved home buyers and taking up issues with appropriate authorities for permanent relief. Mangalore flat owners also will form an registered welfare association to help aggrieved flat owners and attend to their grievance . We are all suffering just because of the authorities have not implemented various rules are regulations are in force. Name it Obtaining Occupancy certificate by the builder, Pollution control board clearances, fire safety clearances, Etc… but we the flat owners who have paid our hard-earned money for proper shelter are the sufferers”.
“Builders do not transfer the assets to the appropriate association for the maintenances and we start fighting amongst our co-owners and we start bleeding money for the shortcut builder has played. Unless we unite and demand the authority to implement the existing laws properly by the authorities it is not possible to come out of the vicious cycle. Need of the hour is to equip the home buyer with proper knowledge , educate the home buyer about rights and responsibilities, how to take accountability of Builders and the authorities. We also request readers to please communicate to other suffering home buyer to join the movement of home buyers . In the meantime, we are also filing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in High Court so that necessary laws may be implemented for the benefit of some buyers” added Ms Veena Shantharam Prabhu, for which she received the full support from the participants.
For More details- Bengaluru Flat Owners may contact -Anil Kalgi –.9448822238
Mangaluru Flat Owners may contact -Mrs Veena Shantharam Prabhu — 9820758431
Note: The contents incorporated in the above report are solely the statements made by Ms Veena Shantaram Prabhu – and are NOT those of the Author/Team Mangalorean and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of Mangalorean.com and Mangalorean.com does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.
Also Read Related Articles :
Why Karnataka Apartment Ownership Act Is Important For Home Buyers
Conned Owners & Buyers Unite to Fight Flat Builders, Who Abused KAOA Laws & Duped Buyers
Group of Flat Owners to File PIL in HC on Govt’s Failure to Implement KOFA & RERA Rules
Court Orders Cops to Book Flat Owners’ Assn for Disconnecting Power to a Couples’ Apartment