Kamanwala Housing Construction is a highly unethical Real Estate Builder having an extremely rude & egoistic person at the helm of the Company. Just because middle class people do not have a voice to be heard; they take complete advantage of people like us. Initially, I thought that it is only happening to me; however later I heard several shocking stories from other buyers of the harassment they are subjected to by Kamanwala.
After being harassed for last 5 years, I am determined to unmask them and give a voice to all those buyers & Manavsthal Apartment owners who keep getting harassed by Kamanwala Housing Construction.
I have narrated below what I have been subjected to and call for all such people to get in touch with me, so we can make a forum and collectively take an action against the company. I am writing letters and visiting all Govt. Authorities to ensure that we have had enough of such builders and will not let them loot our hard earned money.
My Ordeal:
I purchased a 2 BHK flat in D wing measuring 960 sq ft at Manavsthal Malad (West) project on 28th October, 2009; wherein Kamanwala Housing Construction Ltd had agreed to give us possession of the said Flat in September, 2012. The payment terms included 50% upfront money and balance 50% at the time of possession.
While the booking amount was only 2 lakhs, I sent Rs. 4 lakhs to book the apartment as I had those funds ready with me. For the balance Rs. 20 lakhs, I got late by a month. The delay happened from my end in sending payments as I was selling my 1 BHK Flat and it took some time for my buyer to get his loan disbursed from the bank.
When I reached their Sales Manager Mr. Saiyad Jameeluddin at Kamanwala with the balance payment, they demanded Rs. 5 lakhs more; else they would cancel the booking of our flat and would refund 4 lakhs of money whenever they get a buyer to purchase this apartment. I had to plead and beg Mr. Saiyad Jameeluddin to not cancel my allotment. Then he showed a gesture of favoring me and gave me an option of giving Rs. 3 lakhs in cash and then he will not cancel my allotment. Like a helpless customer, I fell into their trap as no one would like to lose 4 lakhs of their hard earned money. I agreed to what Mr. Saiyad offered and paid him Rs. 3 lakhs at his residence in Manavsthal, Marol, Andheri (East) towards penalty of being late in giving payment by a month. Later I realized & discovered, this was a perfect honey trap they laid out for looting people if they get late even by few days. I never got cash receipt for this; hence Mr. Saiyad Jameeluddin and ML Gupta (Managing Director of Kamanwala) can simply refuse the entire episode comfortably.
I wanted to forget about this ugly episode and started waiting for the project to be delivered by September, 2012 but this did not happen. They sent a letter on 30th April, 2013 stating that the project is delayed due to compliance of certain Govt. formalities and also non-availability of raw materials such as Sand, Cement, Bricks, etc. as per their letter no. KHCL/MNVSTL/215/13-14. In the letter, now they promised to give possession of the flat in December, 2013.
However, the project kept getting delayed and the first letter I received for possession in March, 2014 which was dated 25th February, 2014 from Kamanwala stating the flat and the building is ready for possession. Since we are currently staying in Gurgaon, I planned my visit to Mumbai for a week in mid April, 2014 to inspect the flat before taking possession and to my utter surprise that neither the flat nor the building was in a position which can be termed as ready for possession. The flooring, bathroom fixtures, electrical fittings, paint work, ceiling and several other works were not completed in the flat. In other words, it was just like a raw flat with walls. The Manavsthal building had no main gate for Security and works such as putting up the grills, work on the driveway, paint on the exterior of the building, etc. was underway.
I was told by the same Mr. Saiyad Jameeluddin who is also the Site Manager that all these things pointed by me would be completed very soon. The main gate should come anytime soon, fittings & tiling will be done once we complete the formalities of taking the possession. This was absurd, a place which is not ready for habitation and has no main gate or Security is being asked to be taken for possession. In the later months also, I sent few family friends & relatives to check the flat, so we could either put it out on rental after getting possession of the flat or sell it off. The pictures taken by them also did not show the apartment in a ready state for possession.
We started getting calls from Mr. Saiyad Jameeluddin around September, 2014 for taking the possession and we told him that we would like to sell the flat as my medication for my heart ailment is in progress and we would require money to cope up with these expenses. He said that he had a buyer and can help us in selling the flat; however he would need 2% commission on the same. My wife asked him to reduce it to 1% because that is what we would have paid to a broker as well. Since he was offering a reduced price, we also approached other brokers, friends & posted ads on , , etc. to sell the flat; however to our surprise when buyers would go to see the flat, he would hard sell other flats which were not yet sold by Kamanwala. Several of our friends told us & can testify that he would hard sell other flats instead of showing our flat to them. In early November, a very serious buyer went to purchase our flat and close everything very quickly; he said that the flat has been sold and he has accepted the token money as well. Who told us that he has accepted token and whose behalf did he accept the token??
In Nov 14, we escalated the matter to Managing Directors office in Mahim and we wanted to speak to someone senior or the Managing Director Mr. M L Gupta himself about 2 things the mischief which his Site Manager Mr. Saiyad Jameeluddin was playing at the Site & secondly requested him to waive off the interest applied since April 14 (when the Apartment & Building only got ready around September). For several days, we requested his secretarial staff Mr. Ajit Surve to make us speak to him; however he was unwilling to talk to us.
Finally on morning of 26th November, MDs secretary Ajit Surve calls and says that Managing Director ML Gupta has agreed to waive off the interest and they cannot do anything about their Site Manager. Same evening, we get an email wherein his Site Manager is CCd and it says that we have been making excuses & false allegations. They not only back off from waiving interest, but also put all the blame squarely on us.
In December, after repeated requests to Ajit Surve, he makes us speak to Mr. ML Gupta (MD) who did not even give me a single opportunity to say anything. Instead, he said that I am doing this deliberately and there is no Builder in Mumbai who talks to Buyers. I am fortunate that I have got a call from him. When I said that I understand and respect his & my own time, he got angry and said Who are you that your time is so precious? This was shocking to hear.
Last week of December; I get a call from our common contact and their lead Real Estate Partner Mr. Nadvi from Alif Consultants that ML Gupta has agreed to waive off the interest; however he offered me a rate which was understandably lower than the market. I agreed to come over to Mumbai to understand the deal and close it if all looks good after sitting across the table. I reached Mr. ML Guptas office on 3rd Jan 15 only to understand that they were buying back at a lower market rate and selling it off at a higher rate. They disclosed this when I met them in their office and asked few questions around who was the buyer and why are we underselling to another Party. That time they told me that they are doing a buy-back; however payments would reach us in a staggered way in the next 2 to 3 months. Kamanwala had transferred 2 lakhs to my bank account as token without my consent. I transferred the same back to Kamanwala after meeting them in their office.
Since I had no trust in the Builder and they were making me sign documents saying that I no longer have any right on the Flat, I backed off from the deal. Then, they started pressurizing me in all possible ways to not call off the deal. I met him again on 5th January 15 and explained that we will not undersell it and we need some time to pay off the principal balance. He gave us time till 28th February; however sent a letter on 7th January that we only have 30 days to pay this amount.
In March 15, I paid the balance of 26.5 lakhs and the Builder is still not allowing us to show the flats to buyers and is asking to pay an unreasonable amount of interest.
ML Gupta and his office have been calling me & my wife since March15 to pay up 5 lakhs of Interest. Until January, they were asking for 2 lakhs of Interest however since they saw that we paid up that balance they have increased this amount to 5 lakhs.
We are determined to teach ML Gupta a lesson of his life. He is an extremely rude and an egoistic person who only knows how to harass people.