Apartment structure
Sudha
(Querist) 22 March 2012
This query is : Open
My parents live in an apartment, none of the owners of the apartment have been given an occupational certificate by the builders. The builders have been evading the owners regarding this. My parents found out that the builders have not submitted the “completion certificate” of the apartment building to the City Corporation, so officially the apartment complex does not exist. (The builders have not followed the original building plan they submitted to the corporation, they built extra apartments which are not part of the original plan and sold them as well.)
While living on the first-floor the above mentioned apartment, we became vulnerable to a life-threatening situation when we entered the open terrace, which is part of our built-up area. (Each first-floor apartment owner has bought an open terrace as part of their apartment. )Everything from garbage to window-pane glasses started falling on the terrace from apartments above us. (There are 15 storeys above us). A child was hurt when a window pane crashed on the terrace in one incident, and was hospitalised.
We contacted the builder to build a protection on the terrace, they declined because the Deed of Declaration we signed said that we cannot build anything on the terrace. The first-floor apt owners then approached the Consumer Court against the Builders. We won the case, and were allowed to build a roof over the terrace with the permission of the apartment Association and the City Corporation at our own expense.
In fact the Court found only the Association at fault, blamed them for”deficiency of service” and made them give each first-floor apartment owner a compensation. The Court said it is the duty of the Association “ to protect and safeguard the rights of the residents by obtaining the necessary licence.” The Court said that the Builder was not at fault once they handed over the building to the Association, and since there was no structural defect in the building.
In the situation that the Corporation cannot give a written permission to us, we assumed that if the apartment Association gave us permission, we could go ahead and build the roof. The Association convened a meeting for “the final execution of the court order”. (We have a copy of the letter from the Association which called this meeting. ) The Association President gave permission to build the roof in the presence of our lawyer (who had represented us in the Consumer Court), but we didn't get it in writing.
My parents started constructing the roof. We had already spent a lot of money and effort on the structure when the Association President and Secretary brought the police and put a stop to the construction, saying we did not permission from the Corporation. Now, the President did not take any action to get permission from the corporation, and also he stopped our work. The Secretary then wanted us to dismantle the structure we built. He sent a Civil Court notice which called for a Status Quo. What should we do?
