Paying for Flats That Don't Exist

By C Shivakumar

Published: 19th September 2014 06:21 AM

Last Updated: 19th September 2014 09:46 AM

http://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/chennai/Paying-for-Flats-That-Dont-Exist/2014/09/19/article2438400.ece

CHENNAI: About 300 people, including retired employees who had invested all their savings and youngsters who pledged all their jewels and are still paying half their salaries as EMI to own their dream house, have been left high and dry, as the developer of a multi-crore residential project has stalled work for more than two years.

After having paid more than 90 per cent of the cost, the buyers, mostly from middleclass, had been running from pillar to post to get the project revived.

“As per the Builders Agreement, they had to complete the project by September 2011. But, the work was suspended from July 2011 as the contractor demanded higher rates. They made several promises to honour their commitment, which was never complied with,” says retired principal of ASP College of Commerce, Bijapur, V Gopalan.

Gopalan had invested his whole pension on a single-bedroom flat. “My entire savings have gone. I just want them to provide me with my flat,” he says.

The project was launched by Sabari Realtors Private Ltd with much fanfare in April 2009. The group chairman and managing director K R V Ramani had announced that ‘Sabari Serenity’ would have 936 apartments in a range of one, two and three bedroom apartments spread over nine acres off Old Mahabalipuram Road.

It was to have 13 floors and the cost was kept at 1,899 per square feet.

A retired professor of Tamil Nadu Agriculture University G Arunachalam, who also put in his savings into the project, says the developer abruptly stopped the project and urged the investors, who formed the Flat Owners Association, to pay `150 extra per square feet as the cost of raw materials had shot up.

He says how could a pensioner or a government employee pay such huge addition to the cost when they are already in debt. “Isn’t it inhumane? First, they failed to honour the contract and now they ask us to pay more. From where will we get the money,” he reasons.

K P Selvakumari, who is working in the Chief Post Master General’s office, says it is totally illegal to demand such an amount. “We are from a middleclass family,” she says.

Sam Christopher, who is working as a production engineer, says he has now lost peace in his domestic life as he has pledged his wife’s jewellery for getting the loan for the flat. “We have quarrels every night,” he says.

When Express sought his reaction, the president of the project V A Ramash said that only two to three weeks of work is left. “Since the cost of raw materials has gone up, we asked the flat investors to pay an additional amount of Rs150 extra per square feet. Most of them have paid the amount. The project is pending, it is not stalled,” he says.

He says the new rate of paying `150 extra per square feet was agreed to by Sabari Serenity Flat Owners Association. However, to a query as it is the individual buyer who signs the agreement and not the association, the official refused to comment.

Meanwhile, the buyers have also complained to Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India (CREDAI) which is looking into the issue.