Consumer rights organisation, Mumbai Grahak Panchayat (MGP), has urged the Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority (MahaRERA) to issue a directive to all developers to pay interest to home buyers as an automatic arrangement for delayed period of possession.
MGP chairperson and consumer activist Adv Shirish Deshpande has written a letter to MahaRERA chairperson Gautam Chatterjee In the letter, Deshpande said “The crystal clear provision under section 18 (1) requires that the promoters of such delayed projects should, on their own, pay the allottees interest on their amounts paid, at the prescribed rate for every month of delay. The interest payment to the allottees by the promoters is, therefore, expected to be as automatic as the promoters recover interest from the allottees in case of delay in payment of any instalment by just raising a demand letter.”
Since the promoters, on their own, will not pay such interest to the allottees for every month of delay, Deshpande urged MahaRERA to issue a blanket directive to all developers who had delayed possession issues.
“You will appreciate that to protect the interests and the rights of the allottees, the MahaRERA shall be fully justified in directing all the promoters of the delayed projects to comply with the mandate of Section 18 (1) proviso and start paying interest to the allottees affected by the delayed projects. The Promoters may be further directed by MahaRERA to file compliance of this direction with MahaRERA in their quarterly updates,” Deshpande said in the letter, echoing the demand by most home buyers.
