An article about " Court rules against Builder who sold house to two Buyers "

Court rules against Builder who sold house to two Buyers

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.1 lakh 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.