(Advocates, Property advocates in Bangalore, Property lawyers in Bangalore)
A Panvel Resident, whose
Pent House in Panvel was about to be attached by a Bank, has managed to retain
the 1,687 sq.ft.accommodation, thanks to an order by the State Consumer Court.The
Maharashtra State Consumer Commission has now, directed the Builder to repay
the loan of around Rs.12 lakh which had been taken by the previous Owner of the
house.
The Owner and Occupier
of the Pent House, Makrand Bharambe bought the Pent House from the Builder, Jagannath
Deshpande of Ashirwad Developers, in June 2008, for around Rs.19 lakh. About
nine months later, he was in for a rude shock when officers of Central Bank of
India told him that the Pent House was mortgaged to them.The Bank Officials
told Bharambe that they wanted to seize the Pent House which had been purchased by a certain Ketan Shah, who had bought it in 2006 from Deshpande for Rs.12.5
lakh, for which he (Shah) had availed of a loan and defaulted on its repayment.
At this stage, while
Shah occupied the Pent House, it was the Bank which was its rightful Owner.With
his inability to repay, Shah handed over possession of the house to the Builder,
who in turn sold it to Bharambe without informing the new Buyer about the loan
that Shah had availed of and defaulted on.
The Consumer body has
held the Builder guilty of deficiency in services. So, besides repaying the
loan amount to the Bank, the Builder has also been directed to pay an
additional Rs.1lakh for having caused mental harassment to Bharambe and
Rs.50,000 towards litigation cost.
When the Bank Officials
wanted to seize the Pent House, Bharambe had confronted the Builder who shifted
the onus on the loan default on the previous Owner. The Builder told Bharambe
that he had cancelled the previous Sale Agreement and had it surrendered from
Shah by repaying him the initial amount that he had paid. The Builder’s defence
was that Shah had not intimated the Bankers about the cancellation of the Sale Agreement.
However, the two-member
bench of the commission comprising P.N. Kashalkar and Dhanraj Khamatkar
directed the Builder to bear the loan burden.The Commission observed that,the
Builder had cheated Bharambe by selling the same flat twice–first to Shah and
then to Bharambe.
The Builder had remained
absent during the proceedings before the Consumer commission inspite of being issued notices by the Consumer Court.
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