Ekta Builder: Broken Promises & Bhai-giri, Naam Bade Aur Darshan Chote!!

Mumbai, 24 October, 2016: Ekta Group of builders cheats and bullies its customers – no two ways about it. Don’t be fooled by clever PR campaigns, paid media, beautiful website, and estate agents. Don’t get taken in by endorsements of reputed corporate like HDFC Realty, HDFC Red, or mentions in Magic Bricks Now. Don’t get fooled by Anil Kapoor’s endorsement and MCHI-Credai Awards for Customer Responsiveness. That’s all smokescreen. The ground-reality is that Ekta Group, also known as Ekta World, is shamelessly unreliable. Booking a flat in an Ekta project means giving lakhs of rupees with no safeguards and no legal entitlements. Even when the flat-agreement is registered, it is an unfair, one-sided agreement that make you lose all your rights as a flat purchaser. Ekta builder’s overall strategy is to make the buyer helpless. As they say in market language,“Builder ko haath kaatke de dene jaisa hai” — like cutting off your hands and giving them to the builder!

Why are we making such harsh statements against a reputed builder? If you don’t like long explanations, just read (1)brochure of Ekta Parksville and (2) flat-purchase agreement for Ekta Parksville. The brochure is full of rosy promises, whereas the sale agreement tells you that you have no rights and no legal entitlements at all. Builder ka sab kuch, buyer ka kuch nahin!The agreement is nothing but bhai-giri made out in legal language. Investors who have got the point can stop reading and go look for other places to put their hard earned money. Others, who want explanations, can continue reading about the actual experience of a customer. 

1. Five years ago, Vineet Malik of Gurgaon applied for a flat in Ekta Parksville project in Virar, at a price of Rs 26 lakhs. The first demand for payment by Ekta Parksville Homes Pvt. Ltd. came in November 2011. This amount was promptly paid. The verbal commitment given to him was that the flat would be delivered by December 2013 i.e. two years later.

2. Four years later, in November 2015, the last demand note was sent by Ekta Parksville Homes Pvt. Ltd. Although 95% of the total consideration had already been paid, the flat-purchase agreement was not yet signed. The buyer was at the builder’s mercy; the builder could break the deal even now.

3. In March 2016, although the buyer had paid 97% of the total consideration, Ekta continued to refer to the deal as “provisional booking”. See this indemnity bond given by the buyer.

4. In May 2016, finally, the Flat Purchase Agreement was registered. (MOFA requires registered agreement at the time of receiving 20% of the total consideration, but these builders are laws unto themselves!) The agreement was full of discriminatory clauses making the buyer renounce all his legal rights. In a nutshell, the agreement says that flat-owner is only the owner of the four walls of his house, and he has no say in the common amenities promised in the lavish brochure. (Even if the builder reduces any or all of the amenities, and exploits the FSI of the land and/or any common area of the building, the flat-owner must keep quiet! Is this the kind of agreement one expects from a reputed builder?)

5. According to the recently signed agreement, the promised date for giving possession is December 2016. But, judging from the current construction status, this promise will be broken. The entire site is under-construction; there is no way it can be completed for giving possession within two months. Buyers will be lucky to get possession even on December 2017!