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Homebuyers in Noida stage protest non-delivery of apartments

On Christmas morning, homebuyers from over 15 residential complexes got together in Noida to protest the delay in registration of their houses. These buyers have purchased flats in popular projects such as Supertech Eco Village Ajnara Homes, Apex Golf Avenue, JM Florence, La Residentia, Casa Greens One and Amaatra Homes. The demonstrators vowed a "massive agitation" in the coming days and claimed they would continue to march every week until their demands were realised.

According to representatives of the Noida Extension Flat Owners' Welfare Association's (NEFOWA) thousands of homeowners have been waiting for years for their apartments but with no avail. One of the primary reasons for the delay in registration is due to non-payments of dues by builders to the local authorities. The builders and authorities have been unable to settle on a rate of interest to be paid and therefore the authorities have halted issuance of all necessary approvals for the project to be completed and registrations to take place.

Due to the acrimony between builders and local authorities, thousands of homebuyers are suffering harsh consequences by way of having to pay hefty interest on home loans and not being avail a loan against a property because they are not officially registered as owners. Further, the flats cannot be sold in the open market at a fair price because of the unsteady title. As a result, desperate buyers must either sell at a heavy loss or continue paying their EMIs indefinitely.

Earlier this month the Supreme Court took a decision to revoke its 10 June 2020 order which had a set a fixed 8 per cent rate of interest in debts for land supplied on lease to various builders. Despite several builders’ associations such as CREDAI-NCR urging the Supreme Court to take a sympathetic stand and offer a one-time penalty to defaulters rather than the proposed fines, the decision was finalised. Because the issuance of occupancy and completion certificates is directly dependent on payment of debts, builders anticipated this decision would result in the postponement of registration of over 1.6 lac properties in Noida and Greater Noida.

Builders are attributing the delays in debt payments to reasons beyond their control such as the COVID pandemic. Further, many plots assigned to them lacked descriptive titles and construction activity was temporarily prohibited by the NGT order in corelation to the endangerment of the Okhla Bird Sanctuary. The state took a long time to announce a resolution to the farmers’ compensation which is said to have caused more delays. Lastly, in the installation of essential infrastructure such as power and road access were not created within the stipulated time frame by the concerned authorities which delayed the handing over of plots to the builders.

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