Discussion with Laywer

[anuj_bansal]

Hello,

I have found a contact of a civil lawyer in Bangalore through a friend. He is a National Law College pass-out and works with a reputed firm and represents cases in Bangalore HC. He has also fought cases representing buyers like delay compensation or the breach of agreement. Here is the gist of the discussion.

- Delay on the part of builder should be communicated as and when it happens. No communication from the builder is a very strong point for a buyer as buyer has no idea about the delay. Court can award delay compensation for this. This was raised by Mr Sanjeev in today's call.

- Court will admit some delays from the builder side which were not under his control (force majeure). Like delays due to govt, but builder will have to prove that everything he did is correct. Like in our case RPS cannot say that 1 year delay (from 2006-2007) is not due to him if he himself submitted the master plan for approval late. Logical delay which will not be counted as delay will only be from the date RPS submitted the plan to the date they got the approval and this duration will be excluded from the 36 months clause. Similarly other delays need to be proven and court may or may not consider them as the delay which the builder could not control.

- People discussed that RPS may not have submitted the original plan as per the Haryana bye laws. In this case lawyer says that we should also have checked the laws of govt and then raised objection in 2006 itself about the provision of school in the master plan. Ignorance of law is our fault too. But catch is that we need to check what was the original plan submitted by RPS to know if they fooled people right from the start. Court may take a action on builder if they did not submit the original plan itself without considering the govt laws. If they cheated us from the start (by misrepresenting the master plan), court will definitely take an action. Need to wait for the RTI response.

- Any written communication from the builder on their letter head may not be considered by the court until and unless it is bound together with the agreement. So if we have communication from them that they assure possession in 36 months, but it is not bound with an agreement it will not have the kind of impact which will be there for a agreement on stamp paper. This is just an example though I know that 36 months clause is mentioned in the agreement. But I just want to state that Mails/RPS response on letter head is not a very good proof.

- Brochure/website are part of representations admissible in the court, but they are entirely dependent on court if they want to take them as facts.

- The award of compensation for the delay will be according to the agreement. In our case I don't find any clause about the timelines of payment. So it can be at the time of delivery or from the time of the start of the delay on a monthly basis. But in case of delay first and foremost is that the builder has to first agree that there is really a delay.

This person has no idea about the Haryana govt laws, but I can consult him for any questions we have and he can let us know his opinion as per the law. He goes by the book on what court considers and what they wont consider. Please let me know if anyone has any questions and I will let you know the answers as and when I talk to him again.

Regards
Anuj Bansal