This is the question, each and every person I speak to, asks. And I am Hopeful. Although after filing the case, many months went by. Then one day we heard that the builder company has filed for Insolvency. Our case in NCDRC was stalled. The game was simple. Once they were declared insolvent, they will not be required to give us anything. But it is not that simple. We had filed the case against the Parent company and the company which sold us the flats. Since the daughter company was filing for insolvency, our case against the daughter company could not proceed. But then the parent company was also a part. Due to filing of PIL in Supreme court, all cases at other levels were put on hold. Then, the buyers were declared as financial creditors. This was an achievement in itself. Since, now we had rights of voting and a little more awareness of what was happening. The Buildings are standing tall awaiting their finishing. Work completely stalled, gives no hope of being delivered very soon. Once the insolvency proceedings finish, we are hopeful of getting Justice along with our Houses. For detailed clarification, request you to please consult with your lawyer. We can only share the experience of what  we have faced. Richie – 98604.65660. Read More at: Activities At Asar Will We Ever Get Our Houses ? The Plight of Men and Women – Cheated by builders NCDRC 12(1)b or 12(1)c – which one to go for ? Cheated By Builders ? What Next ? How do Consumers get justice Bought your Flat. Did U get Delivery ?

  Having multiple flats in NCR was a dream come true. We were eagerly waiting for our 36 months to get over so that we get possession.  Months changed to years but the wait was never ending. We started discussing with others who were in a similar boat. A lot of agitation was brewing. People were restless. Why not, we invested our entire life’s savings in those housing societies which were now standing barren. Slowly communications were reducing and there seemed to be no hopes of what was called a possession letter. Newspaper news like these were shaking our hearts and rattling our thoughts. We didn’t know what to do. We realized that there was no other way but to go to the courts and ask for relief. Ask for our Flats. Once the court orders, the builder will have to give our flats. So, we started off. To file in NCDRC we were forming groups.  We spoke to hundreds of people who were loosing hope. We told them that we also are in a similar state and while we are troubled, we should not loose hope. Thus we formed groups to file cases against the builder companies to get early possession and compensation for the delay. In the process, I spoke to young and old. Those who were young were angry. The older and more experienced ones were scared. One Lady went to the extent of telling me, ” Beta, please don’t file case against the builder, else he will not give us our flats”. An Uncle broke down while telling me, “I have invested my whole life’s savings. I took out all my provident fund savings to buy this house and it is now stuck. I do not have money to pay Emi and rent both.”. Multiple people said they want to sell off and recover their money. But who will buy a stuck property. There were No Takers.  One person called to check if the builder will give their money back. Innocent people, cheated badly. They have no way to go. These are only some of the examples, which shook us. It s not that the owners of those big building construction companies are not aware the impact it will have on their customers. Distressed people, took to streets and peace marches were done. The kind of mental agony that we consumers were exposed to, (apart from the financial and physical stress)  was unparalleled. And so we at ASAR Initiative, took up to helping people who were in a situation similar to us. For detailed clarification, request you to please consult with your lawyer. We can only share the experience of what  we have faced. Richie – 98604.65660. Read More at: Activities At Asar Will We Ever Get Our Houses ? The Plight of Men and Women – Cheated by builders NCDRC 12(1)b or 12(1)c – which one to go for ? Cheated By Builders ? What Next ? How do Consumers get justice Bought your Flat. Did U get Delivery ?

The more you try to understand, the deeper it gets. For the benefit of those who would like to have a preliminary information. There are various sections under which one can file their complaint in NCDRC. 12 (1) A – Direct complaint at NCDRC 12 (1) B – Through society (Since the value of the complaint has to be greater than Rs. 1 Cr) 12 (1) C –  class action suit – one person can file and result applicable to all 12 (1) D –  Government files a case Out of these, generally there is a tiff between flat owners as to whether 12 (1) B is better than 12 (1) C. Let us look at it one by one : If a complaint is against a builder under Section 12 (1) (c), i.e by an unregistered group of persons, it can be filed only on behalf of or for the benefit of all buyers who have the same interest and grievance against the builder. It cannot be filed seeking relief for the benefit of only some of the buyers. Read more at The Logical Buyer’s blog: NCDRC’s full bench judgement on Section 12 (1) (c) of the Consumer Protection Act. The Challenges with the 12 (1) c are inherent in the process associated with it :1. Since it is for the benefit of all – it is very difficult to form a group. So even if a person does not join the group / doesn’t pay – he will get the benefit of the case filed.2. The interpretation of this case is that people having same interest will get benefitted. This is not very clear whether same interest or similar interest is same thing. This can be challenged in Supreme Court and our case can be hung again. This is ambiguous and clarity is not there.3. The process is that you have to get permission of NCDRC to file case – MANDATORY STEP4. Then a public notice is to be sent to everyone – so that they are aware and accept the case being filed – this takes a huge amount of time – This is a Mandatory Step.5. There is no clarity as to how much needs to be waited after the notice. What if I challenge in the court that the case is not applicable to me. Only after this the process will start.6. This procedure is much slower as compared to 12 (1) B. That is why :The Best way is to go through 12 (1) B because of the inherent problems of the 12 1 c.CLEARLY – Even if I do not become the part of the case and do not pay the lawyers fees in case of 12 1 c – I will still get the benefit of the filed case.And the process is very slow, ambiguous and can be challenged because of ambiguity.It would thus be wise to explore 12 1 b option – which is much safer. This is the one which is being taken up by many lawyers in JP, Lotus Panache, Amarapali, Supertech etc cases. While we were forming our group, someone suggested, that there are decided cases where 12(1) c has benefited people but it has always been challenged by builder because they wouldn’t want to settle with many people. They also have the option of settling with that person and the entire 12(1)C suit then weakens up. This looks like a practical difficulty in getting implementation done.So in short it’s safe to file case as a society, where no one person can influence the case in an adverse direction. Also, Filing a Criminal Case has many aspects. When we file an FIR / EOW case, the officials will do their study and build a case and arrest the builders / parties implicated. Now when this happens, the opposite party get troubled definitely. But the main point – We want our Flats – for which we have been fighting the case is – EARLY POSSESSION & COMPENSATION FOR DELAY This does not happen in criminal case.  In Other cases of Amrapali, Supertech etc., the relief that the buyers have found is through the 12 1 b. They have got reasonable compensation and possession orders. For detailed clarification, request you to please consult with your lawyer. We can only share the experience of what  we have faced. Richie – 98604.65660. Read More at: Activities At Asar Will We Ever Get Our Houses ? The Plight of Men and Women – Cheated by builders NCDRC 12(1)b or 12(1)c – which one to go for ? Cheated By Builders ? What Next ? How do Consumers get justice Bought your Flat. Did U get Delivery ?  

We paid the full amount. Expected date of possession – 36 months from the date of booking. Some Booked in 2010, some in 2011 and some in 2012. Its 2019 now. There is no indication of our flats being given.  The buildings are standing tall, no one is there. not even the workers. The builder doesn’t reply.  All we are told is they will deliver in the next six months. More than Six years have passed and we are still listening to this excuse. This is a regular feature with the NCR builders. They took all our money and years later, no news on deliveries. If you are one of the troubled buyers, Have faith. There is Hope. Our Judicial system is supporting us. Buyers need to come together and fight it out with unity. There are various options available to us as consumers. Some buyers filed a case with the State Consumer Forum. This is an individualistic approach. Once we form a group, our strength increases multi folds. We need to come together so that our collective value of the flats are more than Rs. 1 Cr. This enables us to go to the NCDRC – the National Consumer forum directly. We can file a case with the Economic Offence Wing (EOW). File an FIR with the police. File a Case in RERA (Real Estate (Regulation & Development) Act, 2016) With multiple options at our disposal, we are bound to get justice some way or the other. For detailed clarification, request you to please consult with your lawyer. We can only share the experience of what  we have faced. Richie – 98604.65660. Read More at: Activities At Asar Will We Ever Get Our Houses ? The Plight of Men and Women – Cheated by builders NCDRC 12(1)b or 12(1)c – which one to go for ? Cheated By Builders ? What Next ? How do Consumers get justice Bought your Flat. Did U get Delivery ?

A Dream come true for most of us, when we ushered in all of our life’s savings to buy a flat in our name. A Flat which will remain with us a full lifetime. A Flat which we can call ours. According to the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the first and most important need is Physiological. Air, Water, Food, Shelter, Clothing are the basic necessities of life and this is the first thing we secure so that we can focus on other needs in life. Safety comes next. In order to feel more secure to move ahead in life, we wish to secure a house or a property which will enable us to stay safe in case of unforeseen circumstances. This is what we are talking about here. It is for this that we save our entire lives and give all we saved to get our dream home. A lot of finance businesses thrive from the fact that they get commission and levy hefty charges on various property transactions. Still, we give away all we saved for this one thing. Someone gives their life’s savings, Provident fund savings, borrows money from friends and family, takes all the money their parents saved and so on, just in a hope that they will get their dream shelter. What they didn’t foresee is that the people who were providing these services are also human and can default. Which they Did. Years of waiting, and not receiving their flats, brings about a lot of frustration, tears and sadness. To an extent many of us give up that they will be able to see their property in their lifetime. For detailed clarification, request you to please consult with your lawyer. We can only share the experience of what  we have faced. Richie – 98604.65660. Read More at: Activities At Asar Will We Ever Get Our Houses ? The Plight of Men and Women – Cheated by builders NCDRC 12(1)b or 12(1)c – which one to go for ? Cheated By Builders ? What Next ? How do Consumers get justice Bought your Flat. Did U get Delivery ?

A Consumer has a right to approach the consumer forum in case he feels that s/he has been harassed or exploited by the sellers. Thus various courts are established at District, State and National Level to sort out the disputes between the consumer and the seller. The District  Consumer Forum (District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum (DCDRF)) allows us to approach the court in case the compensation value of upto Rs. 20 Lakhs. This means that the product or service or disputed amount should be within the above said amount. In case the value of the product or services goes beyond 20 lakhs but is below 1 crore, we can directly approach the State Consumer Forum ( State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (SCDRC)). What happens when the contested value of the product / service goes beyond 1 Crore? The consumer has an option of directly going to the National Consumer Forum ( National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC)). Let us assume that we approached the District forum for settling our dispute and after a long set of proceedings which may take multiple months sometimes, we get an order in favour of ourselves. The Seller or service provider may file an appeal in the higher court which may again take multiple months to get sorted. Let us assume that the middle court also ordered in our favour. The Seller or service provider again files an appeal in the National forum, again stalling the case for multiple months. In this entire process, we realize that we end up spending time, effort and resources to get compensation for the product or services we paid for, whereas the seller or service provider stalled the case to buy time. It is thus beneficial that  if there are multiple people fighting for the same cause (for example in case of builder not giving possession to multiple people), we come together and file a case as a group, where the collective value goes beyond 1 Crore, thus saving us, time efforts and resources, All. For detailed clarification, request you to please consult with your lawyer. We can only share the experience of what  we have faced. Richie – 98604.65660. Read More at: Activities At Asar Will We Ever Get Our Houses ? The Plight of Men and Women – Cheated by builders NCDRC 12(1)b or 12(1)c – which one to go for ? Cheated By Builders ? What Next ? How do Consumers get justice Bought your Flat. Did U get Delivery ?