As Courts slam realtors, homebuyers get stronger
Supreme Court's order to Supertech to "sink or die, you must refund homebuyers" comes as a shot in the arm to consumers, who have millions of dollars stuck in realty projects
 "As Courts slam realtors, homebuyers get stronger")
It’s advantage consumers as courts have come down heavily on real estate developers who have failed to deliver homes on time to buyers. Three recent back-to-back stringent messages from the Supreme Court were meant for Delhi-NCR based realtors, though non-delivery of homes is a pan-India trend, thereby holding up investments worth millions of dollars.
After Unitech and Parsvnath, the latest to face judiciary's anger is Supertech. The Supreme Court’s observation saying "sink or die, you must refund homebuyers," was the headline that caught the nation’s attention this morning. But, Mohit Arora, managing director, Supertech, told Business Standard on Wednesday that the apex court’s observation on "sink or die" was meant in general for the real estate sector when the bench was told about builders' inability to pay refunds.
According to Arora, the court asked Supertech to give a return on investment (monthly interest of 10 per cent on the invested amount) to those buyers who were not getting it already while continuing to pay the same to the existing recipients till a final judgement is given.
In a statement, Supertech said, "Few allottees of our Apex & Ceyane Towers who were taking return on investment (ROI) from us, went to the Supreme Court seeking refund of their investment. The Supreme Court directed the company to continue their ROI till main matter is decided, and further directed to clear if any ROI payment is pending, within four weeks."
"We are least bothered about the financial status," a bench of Justices Dipak Misra and Adarsh Kumar Goel had said on Tuesday when there was a reference to some builders having no funds to pay back the home buyers.
Many stakeholders in the real estate industry admit that judiciary had to step in to clean up the sector, which is facing severe cash crunch. "Once delivery starts once again, the sector will see signs of revival," an executive said.
At a time when consumer activism has been on the rise, whether in real estate or any other sector in trouble, the recent court orders and observations have only added to the strength of the consumers. Even Arora, whose company is the latest to be slammed by court, told this newspaper, "judiciary is sending a strict signal to all developers and it may help improve the scenario". But he adds, "Not everything is our fault" as there is just no cash in the system.