Noida: Buyer forced to pay extra for a flat he didn't purchase

Atin Sen, 40, dreamed of living peacefully in the apartment he purchased, but unfortunately, now he is knocking on the doors of the high court seeking refund for that purchase. Sadly, most of the homebuyers of Noida are going through the same situation and are left with only one option, to go the legal way. Atin booked a 2 BHK 1010 sqft flat in eco Village 1, a project by Supertech, in November 2012.

"The cost of the flat was approximately 31 lacs and I have used all my hard-earned money along with a hefty home loan to purchase my so-called dream home. The purpose of this was to live with my small family and it was not an investment decision. Supertech was supposed to deliver the flat in 2015 with a grace period of 6 months as per the builder buyer agreement signed by the two parties. After looking at the construction speed while site visiting, I felt that meeting the timeline will be next to impossible for builders, I started following up on regular basis via emails, personal meetings and telephonic conversations. During this follow up, I learnt from the site in charge that Supertech has built my allotted flat as 3 BHK with 1265 sqft area, it was surprising for me as I already signed builder buyer agreement and purchased 2 BHK and not 3 BHK", said Atin.

Atin complained about this to the Supertech Customer relationship team and followed up on emails.  Atin said, "They didn't accept their fault and kept on claiming that it is a 2BHK until Feb 2018. Later they started forcing me to accept the 3 BHK and asked me to pay extra cost.

Atin went to Real Estate Regulatory Authority to file a complaint against this and get a refund of money. After that, RERA issued a warning notice and then the recovery certificate against Supertech on September 13, 2019 to return the money with the due interest of 9.75%. "I kept on running from post to pillars with RERA order to get my money back, but nothing happened for the next 1.5 years and I finally decided to move to the high court to get my RC executed. I filed a written petition in High Court to get my RC honoured and instruct Noida administration authorities to recover the money. Finally, on August 19, 2021, High Court ordered the DM of Gautam Budha Nagar to execute the recovery certificated dated 13 Sep 2019 within the period of 2 months. These 2 months' time will end on 18 Oct 2021. Only a few days are left but I am not positive if this is going to happen in real-time or not".

Atin, from the last 9 years has been living in a rented house and paying hefty interest on his home loan. Atin said his dream of living in his purchased home has been completely shattered now.