Appeal No.5 of 2022

What the appeal concerns

Appeal No.5 of 2022 before the Tamil Nadu Real Estate Appellate Tribunal, Chennai concerns a joint residential development at Mevalurkuppam, B-Pazhanjur village, Poonamallee Taluk, Thiruvallur District. M/s. Norton Granites & Properties Private Limited owned 4.59 acres and entered into development arrangements with M/s. KG Foundations Private Limited for 640 flats in 16 blocks and a clubhouse.

The landowner company appealed against the Tamil Nadu Real Estate Regulatory Authority order in C.No.164 of 2021 dated 18 November 2021, which dismissed its complaint.

Claims made by the landowner company

M/s. Norton Granites & Properties Private Limited claimed that successive agreements changed its share of the development and reduced the number of flats due to it. Its main claims were:

• The original arrangement allocated 42.5 per cent of the constructed area to the landowner and 57.5 per cent to the developer.
• A later joint venture agreement changed the shares to 41 per cent and 59 per cent.
• The landowner said it had received 88 flats and that further flats remained undelivered.
• It sought registration of the whole KG Centre Point project, delivery of 31 flats and correction of defects in specified flats already handed over.
• It alleged that the supplementary agreement dated 12 August 2019 was obtained through coercion.

Response from the developer

M/s. KG Foundations Private Limited argued that the landowner was a co-promoter rather than an allottee. It relied on agreements allowing the landowner to market its own share of flats, requiring it to share infrastructure and amenity costs, and recording responsibilities for statutory and other payments.

The developer also argued that disputes between promoters were civil disputes outside the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016, and that the agreements contained an arbitration clause. It stated that some blocks had completion certificates or were structurally completed before the relevant registration cutoff described in the proceedings.

Issue for property stakeholders

The Tamil Nadu Real Estate Appellate Tribunal framed the central question as whether the landowner company was a co-promoter and, if so, whether its regulatory complaint was maintainable. This distinction may matter to landowners entering joint development arrangements because rights to market flats, share project costs and retain land interests were relied on to argue co-promoter status. The supplied text ends during the developer's submissions and does not reveal whether the appeal was allowed or dismissed.