Possession of the NCDRC flat is still incomplete – Builders cannot force to take possession

The National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has ruled that to take hold of a not entirely constructed flat, a builder cannot force a homebuyer. The local authority has issued no completion certificate and that doing so is an unfair trade practice. This ruling could help many consumers who find themselves in a similar situation. Ram Surat Ram Maurya and C Viswanath bench ordered a real estate company which is Bengaluru-based, to restore the real money of roughly Rs 3.5 crore, plus interest, to a customer who declined to take ownership of a villa without filing a complaint against the builder and a completion certificate. The tribunal issued the ruling after observing that the flat had been under construction for more than two years and was still incomplete and unliveable.

"The builder urged that they approve the paper, when the complainant went to take hold which said that they were obtaining possession of the villa in fully ready condition, under the guise of the builder's supposed requirement that they had to sign it if they wanted to receive the key to the villa." This was a deceptive business practice. It stated that " Without a Completion Certificate offering possession and with incomplete construction does not justify the builder's actions."

In this case, Suman Kumar Jha and Pratibha Jha, the buyers, had reserved a 3,900 sqft luxury villa in Mantri Technology Constellation Private Limited's Chennai project in 2013. By May 2015, the builder had agreed to finish the work and hand over the keys to the villa. By the construction-related plan the couple had paid the builder all instalments.