Published On : Sat, Aug 8th, 2015

Property Scam: Builders default on promise; buyers’ money stuck, thanks to recession!

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cq5dam.web.420.270Nagpur: Post the series of financial investment scams in Nagpur, which duped many as it promised huge returns and defaulted later, the city now fears to face another mega scam, this time in the field of property. The recession in property appeared to have showing its effect in the Nagpur property circuit now. With the increasing cases of cheating by builders the situation has become evident and equally alarming for hordes of investors who have put their hard earned money in what they consider as relatively safer bet to invest.

Market turns hostile

Continuous dip in sale, piling up bank interests and exhausting resources in the absence of financials is leading the builders to default on their possession commitment to the buyers. Most of the builders have not started work as yet despite a long period has passed since they took money from the buyers.

More defaults lined up?

More recent is the example of Matrix land developers who is under Economic Offences Wing’s scanner as the developer had not started work despite extracting money from them few years back. The Matrix had allegedly duped the investors in the city to tune of Rs 2.25 crore by promising them low cost flats and shops in the city. Now that Matrix is under investigation of Crime Branch’s EOW, focus has been shifted to many such builders who have taken money from the citizens long time back and still hasn’t started the work as yet.

Full Down Payment – The key culprit!

Towards the end of last year, many builders placed full page advertisements in local newspapers promising the buyers the lowest price at one shot down payment. Lured with the scheme, many buyers rushed to grab the opportunity. Given, each buyer paid Rs 10-12 lakh, these builders collected crores of rupees from them upon the promise that work would be started by early this year. But the situation got stuck in series of complexities which include the collected money paid up as bank interest, lack of proper sanction to start the construction and unwillingness being shown on the part of builders. The situation has raised an alarm over major real estate scam in the making.

Delayed police action makes maximum kill

In the case of Matrix Developers, it is expected that the main accused and the other directors of the company will be arrested soon after the Crime Branch taking over the case. This will be the second case of cheating in a year registered against the main accused Suchit Kumar Ramteke. This raises question over his not getting arrested by the police till so long.

Book Now, Pay Later scheme – A New Killer!

Another ploy that the builders are using to squeeze out large sums from innocent customers is by offering them pay holiday of 1 to 2 years after depositing booking amount. Nagpur Today tracked the truth of such offers and found that barring few builders, most of the others often end up duping the customers and running away with their money.