This is regarding the dispute against a real estate builder.

6 months ago

We booked an apartment in Chennai with a reputed builder (XYZ construction company), My husband is an NRI and during his vacation when we were searching for a property in our preferred location, we found the one which we felt suitable for the intended and visited the site and found it reasonable.
We opted for a home loan and requested the builder to complete all the necessary process within 10 to 15 days as my husband was in India for short duration only and they agreed. We paid 10% of the property value as booking advance 4,93,448/- (Four lakh ninety-three thousand four hundred and forty-eight rupees) as per the demand raised by the sales team to get agreement copy and documents for verification and legal purpose.
Initial quoted price of the Property was 49,34,483/- and after some discount the revised property value was 49,07,855/-.
Paid token advance 1,00,000/- (One Lakh rupees only) on 5th April 2023 and remaining amount of 3,93,448/- (Three lakh ninety-three thousand four forty-eight) on 18th April 2023.
Home loan process eligibility has been checked and the principle approval letter was issued on 26th April 2023. But the builder failed to submit the agreement on time due to demises of land owner (which we got to know very late after several calls ) and the complete process was delayed. Even after many follow ups there was no proper response. They couldn’t turn up with valid reason for delay in getting agreement prepared. For few days no calls had been answered and we lost the trust and sent an email requesting refund on 22nd May 2023. Still no reply or call from them.
My husband left India on 1st June 2023. On 6th June 2023 we got reply from CRM stating that the office people were on annual leave from mid may 2023 till 5th June 2023 and that’s why couldn’t answer the calls and respond to mail on time. But the subject cancellation request was completely ignored.
On 20th June finally got mail regarding the issues with the property is resolved and agreements were ready for signing and demanding for the remaining stage payment due till that date which was close to 28 lakhs. We did not respond to it, still communication with CRM going on through phone for refund.
On 29th July 2023 we were shocked to see mail from CRM heading “Unit open for sale” and cancellation charges + Late fee charges + GST all together 5,69,450/- and refund amount “0”.
After many follow ups and escalation within the organisation, they finally agreed to refund 3,81,958/- after deducting sum of 1,11,490/- (which is 20% of payment made + GST) Which we refuse to agree. When we asked for the explanation, they claimed it was given in the terms while signing booking form.

I request the valuable members in guiding us how to proceed in getting the full amount refund without any deduction.
What are the rights you we have , to proceed legally against the builder?

Points to remember:
We haven’t signed any agreement until now.
Most of the initial communication happened through phone and we have no email evidence.
Until now sales person stands with us and he accepted they failed to full fill what was promised, he helped us escalating the matter to reasonable level but refund team is threatening him and boycott in this issue.
As of now , they claim we signed the booking form and terms have been already mentioned.