DB Realty delays giving possession to 3,500 owners

DB Realty, one of Mumbai’s biggest real estate developers, is offering choppers for its potential home buyers for its South Mumbai’s premium projects to oversee the progress of their projects. But the same company is also playing the delaying tactics in giving possession to more than 3,500 home buyers in its project named DB Ozone in suburb Dahisar.

According to buyers, the company is claiming that they are facing fund crunch, which is acting as a hindrance to deliver possession on time.

DB Realty started the pre-launch bookings for the project in 2008 followed by construction work starting in 2009 promising its buyers of giving possession in 2012, but till today it has only extended its deadline, following which the buyers have now decided to move the consumer court for justice.

The 16-acre project site for 25 buildings is located near Dahisar Check Naka and it comes under the jurisdiction of both the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the Mira-Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC). It is a preferred choice for buyers who consider the connectivity to both Thane and Mumbai. The 1 and 2 BHK flats were sold at prices as low as Rs 2,500 per square feet back in 2008 and 2009.

Shantaram Bhandari, a Kalina-based buyer booked a 2 BHK flat back in 2009, said that they were initially given a deadline of December 2012. However, while signing the agreement in 2011, the deadline was changed to December 2014. “I have paid almost 89 per cent of the payment by taking loan from a private bank and like me almost everyone has paid the same amount. In such a scenario I fail to understand when the payment is already been done where did DB Realty diverted these funds instead of putting them in construction of our houses ”

Buyers have also claimed that due to not getting possession of their houses they are force to stay in rented house forcing them to shell out money for both the monthly rent and the loan EMIs.

Speaking about the matter, another buyer, Sanjeev Pandey, said, “Initially they just extended the deadline from December 2012 to December 2014 and then to December 2015. But after failing to meet the 2015 deadline the firm has promised to give us possession by June 2016 which we do not trust as there is a lot of internal work yet to be carried out.”

According to buyers, in a meeting between the buyers and the chief executive officer Vipul Bansal on April 9, 2016, Mr Bansal had said that the delay is due to situations out of their control and they are trying their best to hand over the possession to the buyers as soon as possible.

Despite, their announcement of fund crunch, however, DB Realty continues to carry out work on its site at Bandra, Mahalaxmi and Prabhadevi where it is advertising in newspapers of touring buyers via choppers to oversee progress of its project.

When contacted, Mr Bansal, disconnected the line on hearing the question and requested to call back later but remained unavailable. A text sent to him also remained unanswered.