KOLKATA: The West Bengal Real Estate Appellate Tribunal (WBREAT) has instructed a developer to repurchase a flat he sold two decades prior. The occupant, Sibsankar Koley, resided in the flat for 19 years but could not finalize the mutation due to the developer’s failure to secure the completion certificate (CC) from the local authorities.
Promoter Satchidananda Mitra of Sona Enterprise has been ordered to refund not only the purchase amount of the flat but also the stamp duty and registration fees incurred by Koley.
Koley purchased the flat on Nagendra Nath Road in Nagerbazar in 2006, but he was unable to complete the mutation because the developer did not obtain the CC for the G+4 building. Moreover, the property was embroiled in a legal dispute involving the landowner, Renu Bala Paul.
WBREAT overturned a previous decision made by the West Bengal Real Estate Regulatory Authority (WBRERA), which had dismissed Koley’s complaint against the promoter, and declined a request to mandate the developer and the landlady to execute and register a Deed of Conveyance. The tribunal ruled in favor of Koley’s appeal, mandating the promoter to return the total amount paid for the flat including taxes. Koley is required to vacate the flat and return it to the promoter within 45 days.
The tribunal, led by chairperson Justice Rabindranath Samanta alongside judicial member Gour Sundar Banerjee and administrative member Subrat Mukherjee, noted, “The tribunal has not imposed any interest on the refund because the buyer has been in possession of the flat since July 3, 2006.”
