Expired licence, no OC: Kavyam buyers in limbo as HARERA awards 10.80% interest

Agrante Realty Limited’s Kavyam housing project in Sector 108 faces mounting pressure after HARERA Gurugram rejected the developer’s defence for delaying possession and ordered it to pay 10.80% annual interest to 26 complainants. The project’s licence and RERA registration expired in November 2022, and it still has no occupation certificate (OC).
 
The 26 complainants had paid more than ₹5.3 crore for their flats, which were due for possession on August 20, 2023. In its September 29 order, HARERA chairman Arun Kumar directed the developer to pay interest from the promised possession date until the homes are handed over.
 
Advocate Aakash Gupta, who represented all 26 complainants, said the expired licence was a critical hurdle to completing the pending work and obtaining the mandatory OC.
 
“Even the construction is not complete. To finish it, the builder must first get its expired licences renewed. Only after that can it apply for the OC,” Gupta said.
 
He alleged that despite the licence expiring in 2022, the developer continued promising possession by 2023 but had yet to take substantive steps towards renewing its licence and RERA registration or securing the OC.
 
Agrante, in its reply before the authority, denied that construction was incomplete and said it was in the process of applying for the occupation certificate. It had also sought an extension until March 2026, a deadline that has now passed.
 
HARERA rejects Covid and construction-ban arguments
 
The developer sought dismissal of the complaints as premature and malicious, blaming the delay on the Covid-19 pandemic, labour shortages, rising construction costs, delayed payments by some buyers, 129 days of GRAP-related construction restrictions and a Supreme Court construction ban.
 
HARERA found the arguments devoid of merit, observing that the restrictions had lasted only for a brief period and that such contingencies should have been anticipated at the outset of the project.
 
The authority also rejected the argument relating to payment defaults by some allottees, ruling that all buyers could not be made to suffer for the actions of a few. It invoked the principle that a party cannot benefit from its own wrong and held that Agrante had breached its obligations under Section 11(4)(a) of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016.
 
The prolonged delay has left the complainants bearing rental expenses while continuing to repay housing loans for homes they have yet to receive.
 
“These are affordable housing buyers. They are under huge economic stress, paying rent when they could have been living in their own flats since 2023. On top of that, bank loan EMIs are stressing them very hard,” Gupta said.
 
Based on the order’s figures, the accumulated interest liability for the 26 complainants stands at approximately ₹1.8 crore and is increasing by around ₹4.8 lakh every month until possession.
 
HARERA has directed Agrante to clear the outstanding interest within 90 days and make subsequent monthly payments by the 10th. The developer cannot impose charges beyond the buyer agreement or levy maintenance charges before offering possession.
 
The authority has also given buyers two months after the offer of possession to inspect their flats, which must be in habitable condition. The same 10.80% interest rate will apply to buyers who default on their payment obligations.
 
Agrante has 90 days to comply with the directions, failing which legal consequences would follow.