Unitech home buyers angry at stalled project, want monitoring agency

Irate buyers of homes from Unitech, the country’s second-largest real estate developer, today threatened legal action against the company for failure to complete construction within the promised schedule.

Buyers of homes in the under-construction Unitech Habitat in Greater Noida have come together under the banner of the Unitech Habitat Owners Association. In a protest meeting today at the Unitech sales office in Gurgaon, they demanded refund of the money they’d paid, with 18 per cent interest.

Most of the protesting buyers Business Standard spoke to claim to have paid up to 90 per cent of the amount due, though the construction of homes which were to be handed over in June 2009 is not even half completed.

Unitech Habitat is a deluxe homes project which cost buyers Rs 3,300 per sq ft or about Rs 65 lakh for a flat.

Mukesh Tyagi, a businessman, and member of the association, said there had been multiple attempts at dialogue with the builder, “but there’s no reply from them. If the company doesn’t do something positive in the regard soon, we will go to the court of law. We will also escalate it at a political level. We will go to urban development ministry and Bhupinder Singh Hooda (Chief Minister) to intervene.”

Unitech conceded the company had to stop construction on some projects “due to extraordinary circumstances.” A spokesperson said, however, that “the company has started construction again and will deliver the flats as soon as possible. In addition, the company is committed to pay the penalty as per the subscribed norm for the delayed period.”

Buyers, meanwhile, raised their voice in support of a real estate regulatory body or an independent monitoring agency to look after such breaches and to ensure builders are not allowed to start new projects if the old ones are unfinished.

The existing, arbitrary system allows builders to divert money from one project to the other and expand land banks, they said. The buyers alleged the funds paid by the flat owners have been either deployed in Unitech’s other projects or in the Group’s forays into diversified fields like Telecom or Hotels.

Gaurav Sajwan, a self-employed association member, grieved that the flat had cost him Rs 79 lakh. “I took a loan from CitiBank in 2006 at 11 per cent interest rate which now has escalated to 13 per cent. In addition, I am paying Rs 25,000 rent per month,” he added.