ananthkra

I have booked a falt with Doshi Builders at their Tambaram project Nakshtra and paid advance payment of 5.25 Lacs during Sept'08. I have been asking them to provide the parent document to process my loan and they could not provide the same. Now I have cancelled the booking but they are demanding that they will deduct 10% of the booking amount as cancellation fee which works out to Rs.52500. I have sent letters and mails but they do not reply. I ahve also requested them to return Rs.4.75 Lacs but till now they are not doing so. None of the senior management officals are available for discussion and every time I am directed to speak to the customer care department. Please not I have also note signed any agreement till date with them. As I do not want to loose my hard earned money 5.25 lacs sugeest me how to move forward.

ananth

ks2071746

Dear ananthkra,

Doshi is supposed to be a good and decent builder, Grade I in Chennai. It is not good for them to put their customers into difficulties. After all, it is their fault in not providing the documents to the client. They also get the benefit of no inerest on the amount paid when they are to return the deposit on cancellation. There was also another member who wanted to cancel the booking as the poor chap lost his job and is not in a position to take loan for the flat he booked and the builder asking for Rs. 1 lakh as cancellation charge. Such reputed Builder cannot afford to lose the name they have earned in decades in the RE field in Chennai. You should visit their Head Office in person and insist that you meet their top brass MD or Director on your problem. In any case, it is bad to see, the RE downtrend is even making the reputed builders lose their credibility by not servicing their customers the way it ought to be. Such personal difficulties expressed by the members will go a long way in other members and guests knowing more about the builders of repute, how they take the clients for a ride. In fact I was also looking for a 3 bed flat in this project, and finally left it as the expected delivery was after a long period whereas, I was looking for a flat for possession before March 09. I think, God has been kind to me in this case by making me avoid this project.

ks2071746

Natarajg007

KS, I hope you realise now that a bird in hand is better than 2 in the bush. Many who are willing to pay an advance for a flat announcement without any documents (including approval) are fools. U seemed to contradict that view in another thread.
Basically one can only buy what one can and only in the way one can. So if you pay 5lakhs and then realize no information is available then it is your mistake. I can say no more to the person who started this thread.

ks2071746

Dear natarajg007,

Yes! I agree. A bird in hand is better than 2 in the bush. No doubt on this whatsoever. None will dispute this. Regards.

ks2071746:p

ananthkra

Finally after several correspondence and personal meetings with the higher management at Doshi Housing they have agreed and returned the money after deducting Rs. 40,000. Actually as per the booking form they are suppose to deduct only Rs.10,000. They have also forced me to sign a letter prepared by them that they have settled my dues in full and final and threatened if I don't sign they will not return the money. In order to take the major portion, I have signed the letter and got back 4.8 Lacs.

A simple mistake of believing the BIG brand name of DOSHI HOUSING, I lost 40,000.

Now I am contemplating taking legal action against them for the balance money.

lovebird

Doshi or Joshi. All builders are same.

Never invest in this recession period. We can not trust any one in this cash crunch period

ks2071746

Members and guests should share their good or bad experiences in this forum for the benefit of all so that they can be more careful in their dealings with the RE bigwigs. How the downtrend in RE makes even reputed builers and promoters to practice such -no good to clients- approach in their dealings?

ks2071746

ks2071746

Dear ananthkra,

I am glad that you could settle the advance refund issue even with Rs. 40,000 loss to you for having trusted a supposed to be good/decent builder and booked your flat which you were forced to cancel due to specific and valid reasons. Though you can approach, I do not know clearly, may be the Consumer Court for the balance money, having signed documents with Doshi that it is final settlement, your case may not be that strong. Please consult some expert lawyer, but do not spend much on the legal effort as it should not add to your already lost Rs. 40,000.

ks2071746

abk

lawyers are much worse than builders and you cant even think of putting a case against them.they change sides.

are we being prejudiced against builders,
for general cancellation on any item from car to airplane tickets dont we pay a cancellation fee and many cases like airlines and hotels 100% is non refundable. i had booked an indi_a xita(petrol) and on market reports cancelled it. my downpayment is still not recovered despite litigations and it is one of the reputed corporate of india. so i said tata to the advance

ks2071746

Dear abk,

Your views indicated above are thought provoking. As the amount of deduction involved in the case of flats is high, the individual is worried. After all, the builder has enjoyed interest free advance for some months and he should atleast give a part of the advance immediately on genuine cancellation and the rest, may be in some specific period, say 3 months etc. After all, unlike the air ticket cancellation or vehicle booking cancellation, wherein the sellers would have incurred all the expenditure or the seat may go vacant etc., the builder has not spent much in the project construction and he should think of giving back the advance paid with, possibly some token cancellation charge like Rs. 1000 or Rs. 2000 etc.

ks2071746