The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum has directed the A&A Developers and Builders in Mohali to pay Rs 25,000 as compensation for a delay in the allotment of a flat to a resident. The company has also been directed to complete the construction and deliver possession of the flat by the end of this year.

The forum also asked the builder to not demand any amount in excess of what was earlier agreed upon and directed Hill View Promoters, a partner of the company, to refund Rs 1 lakh taken in excess from the complainant.

The complainant, Sanjeev Goyal, had applied for a flat with A&A Builders and Developers in January 2007. He booked a flat in Golf View Towers in Sector 91, Mohali, and made a “full-and-final” payment of Rs 31 lakh. In February, an agreement was signed according to which the builders were to complete the construction of the apartments by December 2008.

It was averred in the complaint that while no construction had started till the first week of August, Goyal received a letter from Hill View Promoters, demanding Rs 4 lakh more due to escalation of the price of the project. He was asked to pay Rs 2.75 lakh immediately. The complainant said he paid Rs 1 lakh under protest, but there was no supplementary agreement to this effect.

After the builders delayed the project for more than one year and nine months without intimating him, Goyal said, he moved the consumer forum, alleging deficiency in service.

The forum, headed by Jagroop Singh Mahal, said it was clear that no construction had started at the spot. “The builders rather played a trick by transferring the project in favour of Hill View Promoters as its partners, who wrote a letter that there had been an increase in the cost of construction and, therefore, he (Goyal) should pay Rs 2.75 lakh more. The complainant was told that the escalated cost had already been paid by 26 members.”