Pay up or face arrest.
That is the message the Gurugram administration has sent to 80 builders who have defaulted on Rs 634 crore in RERA penalties, some of which have remained unpaid for over four years.
In an unprecedented recovery drive, the district administration will freeze the bank accounts of all 80 defaulters and attach their properties. If the dues remain unpaid, officials said, the builders will face criminal proceedings that could lead to arrests.
The list reads like a who’s who of NCR real estate. Ansal is the biggest defaulter, with Ansal Housing Ltd and Ansal Construction Housing Ltd together owing Rs 91 crore. Raheja follows with Rs 90 crore, Vatika with Rs 80 crore, Parsvnath with Rs 74 crore and the Ramprastha group with Rs 57 crore. IREO owes Rs 24 crore and ILD Millennium Rs 8.59 crore.
Deputy Commissioner Uttam Singh said the system had failed homebuyers.
“RERA does its job by penalising the builder, but pending recoveries make the entire process toothless, and the homebuyer keeps suffering. Many recovery certificates have been lying pending for four years. We have decided to tackle this once and for all,” he said.
He said the administration would act firmly.
“The money will be recovered from the frozen bank accounts or from the attached properties. If that fails, or if a builder does not make the complete payment, we will proceed with criminal proceedings, which may also lead to arrests,” he said.
How the recovery works
When a builder misses the delivery deadline, RERA orders a penalty, interest or compensation. If the builder does not pay, RERA issues a recovery certificate and sends it to the district administration, which recovers the amount as arrears of land revenue.
In Gurugram, however, the final stage of the recovery process stalled. Recovery certificates piled up, while defaulters faced little consequence.
The fallout has been heavy. Lakhs of aggrieved homebuyers have paid EMIs and rent for years on flats they cannot enter, while builders continued to hold money that the regulator had ordered them to pay.
The Tribune has highlighted the pile-up of pending recovery certificates. Officials said the action would begin with the biggest defaulters and be pursued in phases, with the recovered money meant to reach the affected buyers.
