Godrej Properties — Inordinate delay in possession and threat from builder of forfeiting the paid amount in case of cancellation if booking.

Address: Ahmedabad, Gujarat, 382481

Dear sir,
We had made a booking for an apartment in godrej garden city as early as may 2014 with a promised date of possession as 12 february 2015 in the sales deed.
The advance payment as per agreed payment (25%-booking advance + 75% possession) terms were done promptly by taking personal loan based on nri status. My emi per month is ₹166658 @ 5.99% for 48 months.
Based on the promise of handover we made a major decision to move from mumbai to ahmedabad and shifted our children’s schooling also to ahmedabad. Accordingly we also moved into a rental accommodation within gcc based on the proximity of the school and to lessen the burden of shifting again as we were expecting the handover in less than a year from then.
However, now for more than 23 months ggc has only been promising handover with a different date and is non-committal about when the same will be handed over. We intimated them about our intent to cancel the booking verbally at ggc office on 19 january 2017, followed by an email the very nect day, due to indefinite delay and were shot back an email indicating that we will have to forfeit the total payment amount made so far which amounts to ₹ 21, 92, 245, if we did so.
Apart from this during our last visit to the apartment in november2016 we realised that the quality of fittings and construction is not as per standards promised by godrej (Infact they look just like any ordinary low quality material, even the main door frame etc have dents and holes) where as they charged us a higher premium for quality of construction stating that these were premium towers.
Also, we realised that they are having commercial units on the ground floor about which we were kept in the dark untill we found out about it ourselves during this visit.
If they had given any indication about this at the time of booking we would have never invested in it since commercial space compromises one's privacy and security... (Certainly not something that a person would invest @ 1cr in)

Our main reason for paying a premium and booking at ggc was due to the strong faith in the brand “godrej”, this has however been completely shattered.

Initially we also faced issues with the orientation of the flat which was shown wrongly in the sales deed / agreed terms of sale and we had thought it was an oversight, but now have understood that other customers in godrej were also cheated in a similar manner after charging a premium for certain club/ garden facing appartments. This caused a considerable amount of legwork and mental trauma at our end and took about 6 months to get rectified. Now we strongly feel it was intentional since it is clear that godrej lacks professionalism.
Now, this is the 3rd rental contract we have renewed with our landlord and we are paying over ₹10, 000 per month as rent since past 2 years, without any compensation whatsoever from godrej despite writing to them explaining our monetary loss due to their incompetence.
Having made a booking with godrej, taken a loan based on godrej commitment, moved base from one city to another purely based on the strong faith in “godrej” and now being told to forfeit the booking amount the sense of being cheated by godrej is growing stronger.
We seek your intervention so as to get our refund with interest @ 15% per annum as mentioned in the sales deed.
From the consumer forum portal and general verbal conversation with people currently residing in godrej garden city we have realised that we are not the only aggrieved customers. Godrej has time and again cheated people with false promises. Hence request you to take strict action against such entities so as other innocent people are not cheated out of their hard earned money.
Kindly help us to resolve the issue at the earliest.
Thanking you.
Regards,
Ranjini sunil
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Email: ranjini. [protected]@icloud.com