DLF customers take to Gandhigiri to get money back

Customers who have booked flats in New Town Heights, the  project being developed by the country’s largest real estate developer DLF Ltd, at Gurgaon, near Delhi, are planning to take the Gandhigiri route to show their “disappointment” with the execution of the project. Around 200-300 of them are planning to gather at DLF’s office tomorrow, to give out roses along with their exit letters to the company.
 
Meanwhile the company, which is facing a similar problem from its Chennai customers on account of the Garden City project, has agreed to pay back the booking amount between April 30 and September 30, 2009 to those who have given exit letters so far.
 
The Gurgaon group, which consists of around 700 customers who have booked flats in New Town Heights, is planning to go with bouquets of flowers with exit letters to DLF’s office on Saturday, said a core member of the group who doesn’t want to be identified.
 
He said a recent poll among the members shows that over 70 per cent of them want their money refunded since the company has not started any construction work at the project site. The member added that most of the customers had paid around 42.5 per cent of the total cost of their flats.
 
New Town Heights, a residential project at Gurgaon, was launched in March last year as a mid-range housing project with apartments selling in the Rs45-75 lakh range. The project has around 3,300 apartments, of which around 90 per cent have been sold.
 
DLF on March 25 announced a price cut of 20 per cent for apartments in New Town Heights, for both existing and new customers. “But the discount comes with conditions and does not allow us to exit at a future date”, said another member.
 
The company said compensation has been doubled, from Rs 5 per sft per month to Rs 10. Handing over  has been revised with retrospective effect, for three years from the date of booking instead of three years from the date of agreement. In addition, 35 per cent of the sale price has been treated as payment dues as against 42.5 per cent or more.
 
Also, a 20 per cent discount was offered on the Basic Sale Price (BSP), and an increase in area by 5 per cent was implemented, without any charges for that increase. Ten per cent timely payment rebate on the sale value (excluding government charges) was implemented as well.
 
The member said the core member committee met company officials including its Executive Director Valsala and General Manager Customer Support Deepak Kapoor on February 21, “but the company’s response was poor”.
 
Meanwhile when Business Standard contacted the company, its officials were not reachable.
 
However a mail sent out to customers by Valsala , a copy of which is available with Business Standard, states that “we have done our best by doing all the above, to keep you happy and satisfied in the project and are also doing our best to start the construction within a month’s time positively. Despite all the above, if you are still not happy to continue, you may exercise the EXIT OPTION”.
 
Meanwhile the company has decided to return booking amounts in full to all customers who want to exit the under-development project. According to a member of the committee, in the Chennai project, the company has sent a letter saying it would repay the money between April and September 2009 to those customers who have given exit letters between February 18 and April 9 based on the order of exit letters received by DLF. He noted 560 customers have given exit letters.
 
DLF Garden City, launched in January 2008, has around 3,493 apartments and was priced between Rs 31 lakh and Rs 39 lakh, but the company has slashed prices by 10-18 per cent.