Hi Property Law Experts,
I am posting here a problem which we owners are facing regarding Builder not willing to share proper audited accounts. I purchased an apartment in Bangalore / Karnataka apartment on 2012 which is a large project and still undergoing tentative completion year 2016. We purchased in south block whereas north and central block still undergoing. During purchase builder has collected @Rs 2.0 per sqft from all owners ( total sum for about 230000 sqft becomes about Rs 58 lakh per annum) to and kept in a corpus fund. Even though total project is large other sections not completed yet only south block is complete where my apt is. Builder is doing the maintenance services. We have formed a small unofficial group (welfare committee or action group whatever be it called) time to time we asking builder to provide us with expenditure breakup account statement with original bills. Till the time builder has provided with month wise expense report but the costs looks inflated there. Builders inflated cost for first 2 years shows we are spending 71 Lakh in 1st year and some more 75 lakh in 2nd year and giving owners an impression we have overspend t the amount of money collected for corpus fund for 2 years. On this basis he is asking @2.50 per sqft from all south block owners. For us owners costs appears inflated because during internal audit we couldnt account for sum of Rs 20 lakh. Builder says they are not liable to share anything with owners at this stage but only to the association as and when it will be formed.
Present status:
1. no occupancy certificate yet.
2. no proper khata yet. some owners got khata extract.
3. no property tax has been paid till now
4. individual owners have electric meeter (bescom) in their name though
Approvals:
We came to know builder has approvals from local sub-registrar office we could get an approved plan of our project via RTI however we are yet to know definitevely if DOD is not filed. Builder says that since project is not reached 80% completion they have not filed the DOD.
Changes:
Builder has forced some changes in the project causing public road / parks etc placed in between our apartment. causing change in the common area size and reduction of amenities such as park / jalataragg lake etc as promised in marketing brochure however surprisingly these aren't mentioned in registration doc.
NB: Builder is planning to register the DOD as per KOA 1972 this he has mentioned in one general awareness meeting.
According to me the violations are as below:
violation1 >When we ask builder of the of providing verifiable bank statement builder rejects our demand outright saying they are not liable to provide such.
violation2> Builder has not kept the corpus funds in a FD or interesting yielding account and upon questioning mentions that as per contract signed by us during registration we have exempted them from such.
violations3>
After 2 years is over Now since the project is far from complete (and many ammenities such as swimming pool, club house etc not complete) the owners have rejected to form the association which builder urged. Later Builder agreed to continue maintenance but they are asking for greater persqft from coming 12 month as 2 years stipulated time is over.
My question is
1> can owners demand builder to provide bona-fide proof of payment for transactions through banks/cheques
2> can owners compel builder to maintaining a separate current account for maintenance fund for last 2 years so that the statements can be shared and understood fairly and just.
3> can owners force builder sharing interest for 2 years on corpus funds force them to park the fund on interest yielding account / FD etc.
4> Can builder run project for 3 plus years without filing DOD (deed of declaration as per KOA 1972) in the first place. Without filing DOD how come he registers apartment in our name isn't that illegal or makes us illegal alien in our own apartment ? What rights do we have ?
Sanjay Anand
