Allottees of one phase can’t claim right over next, holds TNREAT

CHENNAI: The allottees of Phase-I of a project have no right over the open space reserved for Phase-II, especially when all the assured amenities, including OSR, are already provided in Phase-I, held the Tamil Nadu Real Estate Appellate Tribunal (TNREAT).

The appellate body made this clear while dismissing an appeal filed by a group of homebuyers, all retired army personnel, who had booked flats in a project developed by Army Welfare Housing Organisation (AWHO) in Coimbatore.

To implement the project, AWHO purchased 33.66 acres of land to construct 912 dwelling units in two phases. Later, due to low demand, this was scaled down to 496 units in Phase-I on 23.58 acres, while the remaining portion was kept for future development in Phase-II.

Out of the 23.58 acres of land, 5.15 acres were gifted to the local body for laying roads and open space reservation (OSR). Of the 496 dwelling units proposed in Phase-I, the AWHO constructed 400 that were handed over to the allottees.

Meanwhile, the homebuyers approached the Tamil Nadu Real Estate Regulatory Authority (TNRERA) seeking undivided share (UDS) right over 33.66 acres and claimed AWHO did not have the right to carve out 10.08 acres for future development. They also demanded that the remaining land should be kept as open space forever.

But AWHO refused to part with the 10.08 acres and TNRERA, by a common order, rejected the homebuyers’ contentions. Aggrieved over this, homebuyers filed an appeal petition. Hearing the appeal, the tribunal observed, “As such they (homebuyers) have no legal right to insist the AWHO to hand over the 10.08 acres to the allottees’ association simply because the land measuring an extent of 10.08 acres have been mentioned as ‘open space’ in the approved plan.”

Dismissing the appeal, it also ordered that AWHO cannot utilise the common amenities provided in Phase-I while developing the 10.08 acres open space reserve for Phase-II.