MahaRERA: Allotment letter is enough to seek refund

This will put an end to the debate on whether the Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority, or MahaRERA, will hear complaints on the basis of an allotment letter, in the absence of lack of a sale agreement.

When 15 homebuyers approached MahaRERA in December 2017 against JVPD Properties, alias Bhagtani, their plaints were dismissed because an agreement was not executed, and therefore RERA clauses to demand refund could not be invoked.

The complainants then appealed against the order to MahaRERA's appellate tribunal, and the December order was set aside. The tribunal held that the allottees' complaint would not be dismissed for want of an agreement.

The homebuyers had letters of allotment from the developer, and they had approached MahaRERA seeking refund of the money paid to the developer under section 18 of the RERA Act. But the adjudicating officer BD Kapadnis had held that under Section 18 an agreement for sale was necesary.

The appeal said that the buyers had letters of allotment on the basis of which they made the payments for purchase of flats in the proposed Bhagtani Serenity building. And the adjudicating officer had drawn a wrong conclusion by saying that the allotment letter is the first stage followed by the agreement of sale. The order was posted on the MahaRERA website on May 23.

The tribunal heard the matter and after citing Section 18 (1) (1) of RERA, stated that there cannot be strict use of the terminology of 'agreement for sale'. It said that there are cases where suits are filed based on oral terms and such suits are not thrown away, even in their apex stage, on the grounds of that the terms were oral.

It said that in the present case, the parties had agreed to certain terms, as the letter of allotment showed.

The tribunal, further citing section 2 (c) of RERA, said that it was only a difference of nomenclature between an allotment letter and an agreement of sale.

It set aside the order passed on December 29, 2017, and asked the developer to pay Rs 15,000 to each allottee. The parties were asked to appear before the adjudicating officer again.