The district consumer disputes redressal commission directed Towncity Realtors and its director to pay 9% annual interest on ₹32 lakh deposited by two buyers for a commercial unit at Sushma Capital in Zirakpur, from September 16, 2021, until the developer obtains the project’s occupation and completion certificates.

In its order, the commission also directed the company and its director, Binder Pal Mittal, to pay the complainants ₹75,000 as compensation for mental agony and harassment and litigation expenses. Commission president SK Aggarwal and member Paramjeet Kaur pronounced the order.

The complainants, Aneel Mann, a Panchkula resident, and his daughter, Pratishtha Mann, booked a 664-square-foot commercial unit on the second floor of Sushma Capital at Kishanpura, near the Dhakoli-Gazipur junction, in June 2019. They paid ₹2 lakh as the booking amount and subsequently paid the entire sale consideration of ₹32 lakh by August 2021.

The developer had promised possession by February 1, 2022. However, it offered and handed over the unit to the buyers on September 16, 2021, without providing the occupation and completion certificates, the commission noted.

The buyers told the commission that the developer had also stopped paying the assured returns agreed under a memorandum of understanding dated August 28, 2019. They sought a refund of the amount paid, along with compensation and interest.

Towncity Realtors contested the complaint, arguing that the buyers did not qualify as consumers because they had purchased a commercial unit. The company also claimed that the buyers had accepted possession and sought the return of ₹7 lakh paid to them as assured returns.

Rejecting the objection over consumer status, the commission said the developer had produced no evidence to establish that the buyers purchased the unit for resale or to earn profits.

The commission held that handing over possession without occupation and completion certificates did not amount to a valid offer of possession. It said the absence of these documents meant the developer could not claim that the project was ready for occupation.

The commission partly allowed the complaint and directed the opposite parties to pay interest at 9% per annum on ₹32 lakh from September 16, 2021, until they obtain the certificates. It held the company and its director jointly and severally liable to comply with the order.