Puravankara has announced a delay in their project "Purva Venezia". While I haven't had any issues with the staff courtest so far, I have serious doubts on the credibility & transparency of the Purva management.
It appears that they deliberately misled the customers with an earlier completion date in order to collect higher installment amounts that were not in line with the progress of the project. (They have stated that the project is delayed by almost a year due to a lorry strike, which was for about a week). They are also not very clear on issues such as service tax refund, penalties for delayed handover etc.
Please share your experiences with Purva and help all to understand what one can expect from Purva - both the good and the bad.
So 2 years after the booking and withabout 90% (over 40 lakhs) paid so far, what is the status so far?
Well, as per the "Purva promise", my apartment was to be handed over in Mar '10 and they informed me in May that since there was a lorry strike for a week sometime in 2008, the project was delayed by 1 year. So I was told that my apartment completion date would be Dec '10. As for the payments from me to Purva, they still continue as Purva tells me I am bound by the agreement when it comes to payments. The work on my block hasnever happened in the last 2 years and only in the last few weeks, I see some activity there.
My bank is naturally not so happy with the progress and I am taking personal responsibility in asking them to release monthly payments to Purva.
Interestingly, Purva suddenlyrealized a couple of months back that theylike the environment and have told the customers that they are going (Surprise !!!) paperless. And it is not just an internal process they want to implement.Since they have started liking the environment, they want their customers and the banks also to like the environment and go paperless. So they have told everyone that they will not give any more paper letters to anyone and that they will only send emails. Now, my 45 year old loan guy, whohas never useda computer in the PSU bank where I have taken a loan doesn't understand any of these things and refused to release payments saying he is waiting for the demand letter to arrive by courier as per the process. Finally I talked to the bank manager and somehow got it released. But the manager has also told me that they need the physical letters from Purva for the bank's internal audit purposes.
Later on I talked to Purva about this and theyhave said that at max they will damage the environment for my sake by printing 1 sheet of paper with all the remaining installment details and that I have to ensure that my bank complies with all the payments.
So net result, no building, no paper demand letters but payments need to continue to Purva.
So, construction or no construction, letter or no letter, I am going to be busy running to the bank every month explaining the need for environment protection and the status to the bank and asking for the bank to release the payments.
Update ends
Update as of 8-Aug-10
Well, it's almost 3 years since I booked the flat and things are looking pretty bad. Puravankara has just announced that they are again delayed (!!!???) and the new completion datewill be SEPTEMBER 2011. I asked them the following:
Show me your original plan with the dates and the approvals from your board for the delays, along with the revised plans. The answer was NO.
Since you are really really delayed, refund the excess money collected, as it is not on par with the timelines promised. (I have paid 50L out of 54 lakhs so far). The answer was NO.
Things look pretty bleak as even Phase 1, which was supposed to have been handed over in June 2009, has still not been completed and my apartment is in Phase 2. Purva is saying that they are hoping to hand over Phase 1 sometime in early 2011. Again, nothing to back up those timelines, just ajunior staff who sends out an email afew months before the completion date stating that the project is delayed and that the customers need to keep paying the remaining amount.
Most of the customers had been trapped by Purva's 'time-linked' payment contract where Purva promised to complete by June 2009 / Mar 2010 for Phase 1 and Phase 2 respectively and tricked the customers to pay according to those timelines. So almost everyone has paid the full amounts for the flats and nothing has been delivered so far.
My guess is that this project will be completed sometime in 2012 or later. The interest loss works out to around 15 lakhs so far.
In the meantime, Purva has opened shop for a couple of other projects in Bangalore. I could see their website where they are showing a couple of people with butterfly wings flying around. All I can say is, all those butterflies out there, watch out for the Purva net.
Update ends
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