The Haryana Real Estate Regulatory Authority (HRERA) has ordered Agrante Realty to pay delayed possession charges to four buyers of its so-called affordable housing project Kavyam in Sector 108, Gurgaon. The order came on the back of four complaints by homebuyers, filing almost identical grievances. As such, HRERA decided to consider the matter collectively.
These buyers had booked their flats under the state’s Affordable Housing Policy, 2013, which sets clearly timelines for delivery, which is four years from the date of environmental clearance. By that calculation, possession should have been handed over by February 20, 2024. Instead, the due date came and went, and no occupation certificate was provided to the buyers.
The authority observed that the basic contract between buyer and builder, stood broken.
In their complaint to HRERA, the buyers laid out their demands: delayed possession charges, completion of the bare minimum amenities (water, electricity, functional roads, parks), and protection from arbitrary extra charges that developers sometimes try to sneak, according to a report in ET Realty.
Agrante Realty pointed to external disruption including Covid-19, pollution-related construction bans in Delhi NCR, rising input costs, and labour shortages. In its order, HRERA observed that these problems were not insurmountable disasters. They were short-term disruptions. Every builder in NCR faced the same bans, the same pandemic, and the same cost escalations, but they still delivered.
HRERA’s Stand
The Authority made it clear that temporary bans and pandemic pauses do not give a developer the leeway endlessly delay projects. Quoting the Affordable Housing Policy and the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016, HRERA stated: The promoter cannot be granted leniency on bald reasons and cannot take benefit of his own wrong,”
HRERA ordered Agrante Realty to pay monthly interest at 11.10 per cent per annum (that’s the prevailing SBI marginal cost of lending rate plus 2 per cent) on the money already deposited by the buyers. The interest is to be calculated from the promised possession date February 20, 2024 until the actual handover.
In addition, HRERA also ordered the completion of pending amenities: water, electricity, roads, parks, even club facilities. It also barred the builder from slapping any charges beyond what the builder-buyer agreement allowed.
