House owner not giving the token advance

You have two options. One is filing a complaint aginst the house owner in the nearest police stattion. Next one is you can file a civil suit in the appropriate court aginst the house owner. It is highly advisable to file a police compliant.

Have you signed any bayana receipt  if yes it will be problem for you.

it's the mistake of you. for your convenience he kept the house vacant. later you decided to go for anaother house. so in the one week time he lost new tenants. or you have to arrange tenant.

so it's not eligible to get the money back.

Thanks all for your valuable replies. I have not signed in any receipts or agreements. However I have a written letter from the owner that he received the sum as token advance. But this is in a plain sheet of paper and not a bond paper.

The house is still  under consctruction. I mean there's more work pending like sanitary fixtures, electricity connections etc to be done. One of the main reason i tried another place is because the owner postponed the pocession date by a month and still havent given an accurate date to move in. He keeps changing his words That first he said by June 15 or max June 20th.. Last week He's saying he'll deliver by July 15th depending on the worker availability etc. so no assurance on a delivery date.

He is also not ready for a settlement to keep 2-3k with him and return the remaining. He says I have to pay another 10K since he paid more to people to speed up the work on time so that he can give us the house on 20th June. If he finished the work soon he'll get other clients since that area is in demand and houses goes for rent like hot cakes in that area. So he's under no loss at all. 

Request experts to advice me on the next steps to take to settle this as soon as possible.

What if he disagrees to pay even after filing a police complaint? 

Thanks.

The house is still under construction. Its not yet ready to move in. Electricity connections are yet to come.

Send him a legal notice first asking for the refund of the amount you have paid. Depending on his response, decide your next course of action.

HI,

I had the support of an inspector and another senior level officer and with their support i went and filed a complaint againstr the owner.

One policeman came with me to the house which the owner is constructing and had heated arguments with the owner and he called the broker who dealt this deal and the broker in trun called other real estate agents and started threatening me and finally after an hour of drama in presence of police the owner was ready to gave back 50% of the amount.

I think thats a fair one because otherwise i'll be at 100% loss. If he's booked the house for me for about a mionth and not shown it to other clients, i think its fine both party come to 50 -50 deal and not threatening and keeping 100% amt.

The brokers were with the owner because they will get commission from the owner and the prospective clients that they will get for this 4 floor apartment (1 house each floor). So they were trying to protect him and trying to settle for a deal instead of getting him to the police station. Even I didnt want the owner to come to station because firstly he is 70+ aged man. So I thought lets settle this for 50% of the amt. even though the inspector wanted me to get everyione to the station and get the whole amount.

I hope its all settled now and done. Thank god and thank you all who replied with advice for my concerns. I hope the brokers wont create any problem to me.

This is a big lesson and I will never ever pay big amounts as token advance hereafter. No more real estate briokers also except a few who were really good.