Two years on, no answer to flat buyers' plea

Chennai: When authorities demolished the 11-storey apartment on Wednesday evening, it also brought down the hopes and life savings of over 75 unfortunate apartment buyers of Prime Sristi Housing's property at Moulivakkam, where one of the two towers collapsed two years ago.

“I spent Rs 37 lakh over a period of time to buy a two bedroom flat in the Belief tower demolished on Wednesday at Moulivakkam and it wasn't a house that I was investing in. Whatever amount I paid up front was from my savings and now all is gone. I wanted to buy the flat and later sell it to support my son's education," T. S. Kannan, who heads a small software firm, told Deccan Chronicle.

On June 24, 2014,  one of the two towers - "Faith" - under construction suddenly collapsed killing 61 construction workers. On Wednesday, the second tower - "Belief" - was demolished using implosion - controlled explosion after a long legal battle.

"It was my hard earned money. Now, I don't have anything else to invest in my son's education. The judiciary is the sole hope for people like me, but it will take its own course and time," Mr Kannan laments.

Sadly, the middle-income flat buyers face the prospect of repaying entire bank loans for the home that was not there. “We are in the same situation that we were two years back. We together filed a case with the consumer courts in December 2014 but we haven't had a single hearing till date," said Ratna Misra, who is the president of the Moulivakkam Trust Heights Affected Flat Buyers Association.

"I had bought a flat in the apartment that collapsed in 2014. I spent '45 lakh on it, of which a  major chunk was from my own savings. After the incident, about 55 of us came together as an association to fight against this injustice," she said.

Many buyers had invested the life savings ranging from Rs 10 to Rs 20 lakh for paying the upfront cost of purchasing the flat and the rest of the Rs 30-Rs 40 lakh through bank loans.

The flat buyers who availed loans are continuing to pay the EMIs but many of them could not pay it anymore. "We are facing more troubles with the Debt Recovery Tribunal sending us notices too for non-payment of EMIs," Misra said.

"The CMDA that had approved the buildings are the ones who are demolishing the building. Nobody has been considerate enough to spare a thought about the buyers. Many in this association are retired people. Imagine their plight - they have put in their entire savings of a lifetime into buying the apartments," she said.
 When asked whether the state government would compensate the flat buyers, housing and urban development department secretary Dharmendra Pratap Yadav told DC that the government would not be able to compensate the buyer but would help them in their legal fight against the developer. "It is a private contractual agreement between the builder and people who are the purchaser. The government has no head of account from where it can pay any compensation. It does not fall into any of the categories," he said.

Interestingly, the one-man commission headed by Justice R. Regupathi, in its report, recommended a compensation for flat owners who faced heavy financial losses under the state disaster relief fund deviating from its three-point brief to investigate the causes of the building collapse. The recommendation has, however, been rejected by the government.