The Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) court of Gurugram has penalized Vatika Limited for violating the builder buyer agreement. The court has established the violation of Section 13 of the Act 2016 on the part of Vatika Limited and has imposed a penalty of Rs 1,00,000 in each complaint. The court has further directed the promoter to execute the registered buyer’s agreement as per the model agreement provided in the Real Estate Regulation and Development Rules 2017 within 30 days from the order. Failure to comply with this direction will result in penal action under Section 63.
The violation of Section 13 of the Act 2016 states that a promoter cannot accept a sum more than 10% of the total cost of an apartment, plot, or building as an advance payment or application fee without first entering into a written agreement for sale and registering the said agreement. In this case, Vatika Limited has taken 100% of the consideration without executing the builder buyer agreement.
In addition to the penalty, the court has imposed a penalty of Rs 25,000 in each complainant under Section 63 of the Act 2016 for non-complying with the directions of the Authority.
The complainants had approached the RERA Court in October 2022 seeking justice after failing to get any desired relief from Vatika Limited. They had booked commercial units in Vatika India Next project in 2018 and paid the full consideration to the promoter without executing the builder buyer agreement. However, a year later, Vatika transferred their units without their consent to a different project, Vatika One on one, in Sector 16, Gurugram, and also reduced the unit sizes.
The court has also directed Vatika Limited to pay interest for every month of delay from the due date of possession till the valid offer of possession at the prescribed rate.