New Delhi : At least 3,278 homebuyers of Amrapali Group are set to be declared defaulters by a Supreme Court-appointed committee to complete unfinished projects of the bankrupt real estate firm as they are yet to enroll themselves on the portal dedicated to homebuyers . Any payment for the purchase of his property for the past few years.
Once declared a defaulter, the housing units sold to him will be shifted to the so-called unsold category, said senior advocate and apex court-appointed receiver R Venkataramani. A total of 32,000 homebuyers have so far enrolled on the portal created for Amrapali homebuyers, out of which around 7,000 have paid the full amount, he said.
“We ultimately want to find out who is interested and who is not. So we identified people who haven’t been paying since 2016. Roughly this figure now stands at 3,278 people who are not. Will be declared defaulter next month. This means their units will fall in the unsold category,” Venkataramani said.
“Despite the efforts made by us, they cannot be traced. Either they are not being traced or they are not responding. Whatever means of communication we could have adopted by sending registered post, speed post, mail, letter, WhatsApp message, everything has been done. In some cases, wherever the addresses are available, physical verification was also done. Hence, this number will be treated as unsold,” Venkataramani said.
These home buyers are from many parts of the country and a few hundred are abroad, according to records, he said. He said it took three to four months to track them down and reach them.
Venkataramani said the total amount paid by 3,278 home buyers was approx. 200 crore- 300 million. The court receiver said that if any of these buyers claims their investment after being declared a defaulter, it will have to be returned. He also said that the committee has planned a contingency fund to meet such demands.
Meanwhile, another 7,000 people who have registered on the platform have not made any payments since 2019. The committee is taking steps to identify and reach out to them, which Venkataramani said, is expected to be completed in a few months.
In 2019, the apex court appointed Venkataramani as the court receiver, ordering the cancellation of the real estate regulatory authority’s registration of Amrapali. It also appointed state-run NBCC Ltd to complete 23 pending projects of Amrapali, which included 43,000 stalled houses in Noida and Greater Noida.
Last month, Venkataramani in a note informed the court that the first installment of 150 crore out of the total amount of Rs 1,500 crore has been paid directly to NBCC for the construction of the stalled Amrapali housing projects.
A consortium of seven banks had agreed to invest 1,500 crore to complete the construction of unfinished projects.