The Brave Pedestrian

Mumbai, 10th May, 2018: Hundreds of cheated home-buyers of Bhagtani builders (also known as Jaycee Homes and JVPD Properties) are running from pillar to post, trying to recover lakhs and crores of rupees that they paid for booking flats. Circumstances have led most victims to believe that Diipesh, Mukesh and Lakshman Bhagtani have no money. People have become almost convinced that over Rs 450 crore collected towards Riyo, Sapphire, Serenity and Savannah projects has somehow magically vanished like water poured on desert sand. "EOW officers say that they have freezed all the accounts,  and all accounts have zero balance," say victims who are in regular touch with the police. But if this is true, then how did Bhagtani repay an SBI loan of Rs 12.40 crore in April 2018? Look at this screenshot from Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) website: If you can't believe your eyes, read this Certificate of Satisfaction of Charge   issued by Ministry of Corporate Affairs. Ye...

Mumbai, 20th November 2017: Buying a flat from Lodha Group can land you in deep trouble with the Income Tax Department. The small print in Lodha Group's Application Form compels you to not deduct TDS on your installments as required by law. Lodha's sales staff and Application Form illegally compels you to delegate your legal responsibility to Lodha. Such delegation can land you in deep trouble. Not only will you invite penalties from the Income Tax authorities, but worse, it can lead to scrutiny of your tax returns. Nobody in his right mind wants to invite I-T scrutiny through careless actions, but that's what can happen to you if you blindly trust Lodha's paperwork!  As a flat purchaser, you have a statutory obligation under section 194-IA of the Finance Act to deduct tax and furnish details of your property transaction to the Income Tax department. There are no exemptions. Read this article to understand your obligation as a flat-purchaser. There is no pro...

Mumbai, 16th November, 2017: Lodha Group's Application Form is like a bear-trap for prospective flat buyers. When you are preparing property papers and legal documents, every single word has to be clearly understood and agreed upon. But Lodha's customers are forced to make fatal blunders in the paperwork right in the beginning. The consequence of those blunders is that Lodha Group gets a crushing grip on your balls, which it squeezes whenever it wants. If you are a Lodha customer who tried to stand up for your own rights, you may have experienced this crushing grip. Lodha Group's insidious Application Form is not declared before MahaRERA. Lodha Group insiders never share a copy, but we have procured it. Click here to download . These are the papers you are sweet-talked into filling up in the euphoric afterglow of a site visit.   UNDERSTAND HOW THE FORM WORKS AGAINST YOU : 1. The Application Form reverses who is the promisor and the promisee. Lodha's...

13th November, 2017, Mumbai: Our first article, titled Lodha Fiorenza – Misleading RERA, Blindfolding Flat Buyers , reveals how Lodha's sales staff mis-sells the flats to customers and keeps them in the dark by denying them crucial information about the project. Our second article about how Lodha Group is defrauding flat buyers in Carpet Area has been provoking many flat purchasers to ask the right questions. But such is the strength of the LODHA BRAND that people hesitate to believe anything written against Lodha. "This can't be true," they argue. Well, we believe that seeing is believing. So, here is an actual instance of Lodha's carpet-area fraud. Below are plans of flats in Lodha Belmondo that show you clearly how much Lodha is cheating you. "4Bed Layout (2751 sqft)" This plan titled "4Bed Layout (2751 sqft)" was emailed by Lodha Group's sales staff. If you total up the dimensions shown in the plan, the measurement is 1815....

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12 th August, 2016: In today's mumbai Mirror, there's this frontpage story headlined, " Buyers Hire Rock Climbers to Enter Flats that Builder won't Hand Over ". One empathizes with the desperation that triggered a dozen home buyers in Powai's Tej society, a redevelopment project of Shwet Realtors ... but their adventurous act is likely to land them into trouble. Yes, this move succeeded in focusing public attention on the plight of the home owners and the defaults of Shwet Realtors in particular, but nevertheless, the police will probably register an FIR for "House Trespass" and related offences against the home-buyers and the rock-climber, and promptly issue arrest warrants. The fact that the redeveloper delayed possession of the flats for years will not cut ice, because the police or magistrate view the builder's actions as a "civil dispute", and the buyers' actions as a "criminal offence". Bottomline: Our system i...

Mumbai, 5th March, 2016: Last week, one of RNA builders' thousands of cheated flat-purchasers sent the builder a legal ultimatum, and started taking steps for going to court after discovering that their promised 17th floor flat in RNA Regal, a project in Kandivali West, is the proverbial pie-in-the-sky! In February 2011, Sandeep Kothari and Apeksha Khabiya, a non-resident couple based in Doha-Qatar, booked a spacious 17th floor flat in RNA Regal, based on the builder's promise that they would get possession within three years. The couple planned to return to India to live in this spacious 1365 sq. ft. dream house. After paying nearly Rs 30 lakhs up front as initial booking amount, the couple was kept in the dark by RNA Corp which fed them a steady diet of outright lies during the three-year waiting period. Every time the couple phoned RNA Corp, they were informed that the project was making satisfactory progress. In the end, the couple's rude awakening consisted of not on...