Societies can’t afford to delay flat handover………Mayura Janwalkar
Delaying the handing over a flat and ignoring court notices can land a housing society in trouble. Ignoring court notices, in fact, can lead to the arrest of its members, as has been the case with Piyush Doshi, secretary of Gorai Shivshambhu co-operative housing society in Borivili.
The consumer dispute redressal forum (CDRF) issued a non-bailable warrant against Doshi for delaying handing over of two flats booked by brothers Nilesh and Nitin Samant. Doshi was arrested by Borivili police and produced before the CDRF on October 8 after he failed to respond to notices issued by the court.
The court had on March 3 ordered Doshi to pay Rs10,000 as fine to the brothers who had booked separate flats in Seawood building of Gorai Shivshambhu complex.
Nilesh Samant said, “We were supposed to pay consideration amounts of Rs10.80 lakh and Rs9.77 lakh for the flats.” Since the amounts were paid over a period of time, the Samant brothers were expected to pay interest of Rs55,128 and Rs53,520 to the society.
In March, the court had asked them to pay interest amounts and asked the society to hand over the flats within seven days of payment.
The Samants paid the amount in May, 2008. However, they had not received the possession documents of their flats in the Mhada complex.