Pune: Homebuyers Protest Against Vertillas Project in Kharadi, Accuse Builder of Fraud
Kharadi, 25th January 2025: Over 130 homebuyers of the Vertillas residential project in Kharadi staged a peaceful protest on Saturday, alleging fraud and negligence by the developer, Arman Kothari. The protest began at the Kharadi Police Station and ended at the project site, highlighting the anguish of buyers who claim to have been deceived after investing their life savings in the delayed project.
Originally launched in 2013 under the name Le Reve, the project was rebranded as Vertillas in 2023. Buyers were promised possession by June 2024, but despite collecting nearly 90% of the payment from buyers by January 2024, construction progress has been minimal. The developer is now untraceable, leaving buyers without answers or compensation.
One of the affected buyers, Dr. Supriya Pendke told Free Press Journal, said, “This project has been nothing short of a nightmare. It was sold to us with the assurance of timely possession and even compensation in case of delays. However, the builder has abandoned the project after collecting almost the entire payment. Construction work is at a standstill, and many of us are stuck paying both high EMIs and rent. We’ve filed complaints with RERA, but the process is painfully slow. The authorities must intervene to ensure justice is served.”
For many buyers, like Prakash Tewary, the delay has been devastating. “I saved for two decades to buy a home in Kharadi, only to see my dreams crushed. The builder’s false promises have left us in financial distress. Through this peaceful protest, we hope to push the authorities to address our grievances and hold the builder accountable.”
Adv. Paresh T. Thorat, a flat purchaser, told Punekar News, “AMI Estates LLP is a partnership firm of Arman Kothari and Siddhant Kothari and they had commenced a Project in 2011 by name La Reva. From 2011 to 2017 said promoter had only completed seven floor slab work out of 13 Sanctioned floors. Hence all the purchasers cancelled their booking and agreement as the promoter was not able to give possession on time. After the enactment of the RERA Act in 2016-17 the Promoter changed project name from La Reva to Vertillas. In the meantime, various complaints were registered before the RERA Authority in which the Promoter either settled the dispute with the purchaser or an order was passed against the Promoter and he was directed to return the amount received along with interest. But thereafter in January 2022 Promoter again commenced work with full force and after 6-7 months of continuous work, we were impressed by him that he will give soft possession before December 2023 and Possession with OC in March 2024. Hence we booked a flat in August 2022. Initially, the work was happening in full swing and also promoter got a revised commencement with respect to floors from the 14th to 21. But in January 2024 no work was happening at the site and he managed to obtain extention by giving false documents, which were not verified by RERA Authorities. The promoter has good knowledge to utilise loopholes of the Legal System and taking undue benefit of the same. At present about 75 complaints are filed against Promoter before RERA Authority, but we will not be surprised if RERA again gives him an extention on false and fabricated documents submitted by Promoter and takes undue benefit of the Procedural lacunas. After repeated attempts to contact the Promoter, he is not coming forward and not giving any concrete schedule or bar chart as directed in the RERA extension order and therefore we were constrained to do a protest against the Promoter.”
The builder is yet to respond to the allegations.
