MahaRERA summons BMC, GVK over non-issuance of OC to developer

— By Karishma Ravindran | Apr 06, 2018 08:53 am

Mumbai: In a first, Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority (MahaRERA) summoned officials from civic body and GVK, which operates the Mumbai International Airport to ascertain their views in connection to non-issuance of Occupancy Certificate (OC) to a developer. The officials said the OC was not provided to developer as he violated the height restrictions imposed by the Airport Authority of India (AAI) in the project work.

This relates to a complaint filed by a home buyer who purchased a flat in a building called Palazzio in Kurla and failed to receive the flat possession. The complainants Pradeep Sharma and Sangeeta Sharma entered into a tri-partite agreement (shared by three parties)with the developer Spenta Builders Private Limited.

“The developer failed to provide the possession of the flat to the first owner on the said date of possession on December 31, 2016. We filed the complaint to claim the interest under section 18 of RERA act,” said Pradeep Sharma.

During the hearing, the developer was represented by advocate Sonam Mhatre and advocate Ankad. They claimed that there were definite reasons for delay in handing over the possession. “The complainants had also delayed in making the payments by 190 days. Hence, their claim of interest must be rejected,” stated Mhatre during the hearing.

The developer had applied for OC to civic body after completing the project work in May 2017, which was yet not received. The representative of the developer also brought to notice of the authority that civic body had directed AAI and GVK to verify heights of buildings under the project as directed by Bombay High Court. The AAU did not submit the report as yet.

The RERA bench found that it was necessary to find out the reasons for non issuance of OC by the competant authority and summoned the officials. During the hearing, officials from GVK said the developer had failed to follow the directives issued by AAI imposing restrictions on the heights of the buildings. The AAI had also issued Non-objection Certificate vide letter which stated the height of the building could not go beyond 42.24 square meters.

The officials said there were violations done by the developer who increased the heights of the building beyond a permissible limit. Hence, the competant authority being the civic body did not provide a OC.

A letter from the GVK was further sent which states that ‘the developer violated the height of 45.24 meters and hence there are obstructions for safe aircraft operations. The developers contention that the delay in getting the OC is because of GVK not granting NOC is incorrect.’ After hearing the points put forth by the officials, the RERA bench observed that the reasons cited by the developer for delay in project completion does not give any satisfactory explanation.