From building dreams to nightmares

The NOIDA Extension land and housing mayhem has just about started, and the shivers are running deep into customers’ backbone. No one really knows what’s going to happen in the final analysis but the buyers seem to be the ones bearing the brunt of all the illegalities that the courts and the farmers are suddenly discovering in most projects.

Those who did not book despite being pressurised by friends to make “sound real estate investments” are the ones who are breathing a sigh of relief. Those who got lured into investing their hard-earned lakhs into barren land sites where flats were to come up, are, as one of the customers said, “waiting with bated breath for some clarity to emerge on the issue.”

Take the case of X. He booked a flat in NOIDA Extension and had been dutifully paying his hefty five figure instalment by the month. He still is doing the same. “We have been sandwiched badly. If you put a stop to instalments, you end up risking proceedings by the bank, and if you carry on paying the money, it seems you are putting your hard-earned money into a deep hole,” he tells you.

The builders, who have been stopped in their tracks with building work going on the backburner, are coming up with a whole lot of excuses. As Mr X’s builder said: “Carry on paying instalments as only a small portion of my project has been affected by the court order” seeking to return the land to the farmers, who were apparently duped to sell their land at a throwaway price. According to this builder, only the greens around the flats will be cut short. However, no building activity is happening at the site even as his customers continue to pay the instalments to the bank which has given the lump sum to the builder.

Yes, the Supreme Court has ruled that the money will have to be paid back by the builder to his customers but there has been no timeframe set, only an interest rate on pending deals.

Really for the unsuspecting customer, who seems to be the only one paying heavily for all the erroneous deals made by the Government and the builders, there is no end in sight to his woes as he helplessly sees his hard-earned money going down the drain.

Optimists say, and it may be true, that finally a solution may emerge in this entire tangle. But precedent has seldom gone with the customer and no one really knows by when. One may ask how is it the customer’s fault. At the most, while investing in a house he can only go back that far in checking the veracity of the original land deal — which means he will check the antecedents of a builder and then go for the cheque book. It is not some private deal among individuals where the land records need to be checked and rechecked just in case the seller is hiding the truth that the land is disputed or not his.

With bid builders like Ansals, Jaypee or Amrapali one goes by reputation. How would the customer be in a position to check how the land has been acquired, how the Government may have bungled, how the farmers could have been duped. But in the end, all villains of the show go scot-free and the most unsuspecting victim — the customer — pays through his nose.

Apparently, one can’t pressurise the builder as there is some clause in fine print that absolves him of responsibility. Asking the bank to not demand instalments and settle the moneyback issues from the builder is a ridiculous demand under the law. Also, if at all the builder tells you that he will be shifting the project to a new site, the same bank loan will not do as all bank loans are property specific.

So, what the customer will, in that scenario, do is to seek a fresh bank loan for the new property, fresh paperwork and fresh interest rate etc — at the same time hoping that the builder this time will actually build a flat and hand it over. No one is even talking about the delay that will cost them a higher cost for the project with some customers expecting to pay twice the sum originally envisaged.

Alarmingly though, this is not only about the NOIDA projects which have run into trouble only now. I know of people who have invested in a house with other builders and have finally reconciled with the fact that their initial deposit and registration fee etc is a dead investment with no hope of them getting either that money or the flat in this life at least. And, mind you, the builder who finally said the project was off (the customers found out that the land on which he was to build their dream houses was disputed and hence, he would not go ahead on the project), is connected to the highest echelons of power with no one in a position to really touch him.

Really, there should be someone, anyone who should be able to protect the common man from the fallout of corrupt politicians and unscrupulous builders who hope that the law would always turn a blind eye to their ruthless money-making ventures pegged on the blood and sweat of other people. 

Source: Sunday Pioneer, July 24, 2011