Builder jailed, family homeless after RERA seals his home

Ahmedabad: Failure to hand over possession of residential and commercial spaces to buyers in his schemes landed a Vadodara-based builder in jail and rendered his family homeless. However, the Gujarat High Court on Tuesday stayed a Gujarat Real Estate Regulatory Authority (GujRERA) order to attach and seal his property, saving the builder’s elderly mother and two children from being homeless. The court gave the interim relief upon the builder’s assurance that he would deposit the Rs 1.48 compensation to buyers that RERA had imposed upon his firm for delaying the possessions. The HC intervention has also spared the builder’s house from being auctioned. The case involves Manish Patel and his wife Parul of Keya Buildtech in Vadodara. Buyers in his two commercial and one residential schemes were not given possession of their properties for over six years as Patel faced troubles getting the due permissions. This led to multiple FIRs against the couple and more than 50 complaints before RERA. Patel was jailed on August 2 while Parul has been on the run. Meanwhile, against the buyers’ complaints, RERA ordered Patel to pay them Rs 1.48 crore. When Patel defaulted on the payment, the authority issued an attachment order and the district collector sealed Patel’s house, rendering his septuagenarian mother and two children homeless. Patel and his wife then approached the high court and promised to deposit the compensation amount with RERA. Justice V D Nanavati stayed the RERA order so that the family could return to the home. The court also asked the builder to request RERA to open the seal and locks on his house. Against this interim relief, the court directed Patel to deposit 30% of Rs 1.48 crore with RERA in four weeks. Patel said that it would be difficult to arrange the money as he was in jail but undertook to deposit the full amount in seven to eight months.The HC issued notice to seven buyers on whose complaint the builder’s house was sealed and posted further hearing a month later.

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