Cheating of Contractor in Puducherry
In the month of December 2007, M.BALASUBRAMANIAM@ RAMALINGAM S/o, Mr. Mannankatty one of the builders in Chennai shifted to 5, Ponnambala Mudali Street, Old Vandippalayam, Cuddalore stayed with his brother M.ARUNAGIRI working as a Trained Graduate Teacher in Govt. High School, Dharmapuri, Puducherry residing in Lawspet, Puducherry both of them approached my father in law and me to construct a residential house in my plot at Marie Oulgaret, Puducherry. Since the approach is decent, begging for a start for their builder work in Puducherry through me and the cost of construction also reasonable, we decided to give them construction work after consulting many builders and friends.
I have started building my own residence on 26th January 2008 and let the construction work with the unregistered contractor. We made a mutual work deed in 10 rupees stamp paper and signed by both on 1st February 2008. It was not registered. We have mentioned the way and methodology and materials to be used etc., in the agreement.
Pitiable work by contractor
In the beginning of work the contractor and his brother promises a lot that he will look after everything and does so. The contractor did not appoint any watchman, if so; he didn’t pay money so that he lost some building materials and wiring materials. We cured the roofs for a month. He has no permanent workers because nearing the end he did not give money to them properly saying that the building owner is not settled the account. He does flooring work in our house and here he does some major mistake. Instead of using wood in windows he uses one side glass. Mother walls and ventilators are not properly finished. On the top of house he also does waterproofing and from that area the leakage starts in these days due to incompletion of final touch up. Now dispute take place between us. He said that these are all minor mistakes and that he will do it cheap for us (Said cost Rs. 60,000/= but Billed Rs.92,375/= without proper receipts).
Defects in construction
The contractor and his brother asked to take possession of the house. But I strictly informed them to complete the bending works then only I take possession of new house. I gave a list mentioning incomplete works like non functioning of one phase, no white washing, polishing and painting on the borders, hidden / non viewable areas, single coating on most of the wood and metal doors, hand raids, etc.,. Pooja door, Main door and back door are not in a good finish. They said they are unable to look after the property and all the bending works will be finished within a week and post possession they are responsible for any mistakes asked to correct by the owner of the house.
I took possession of new house. The contractor or his brother never pay a visit by them self or on call for completing the bending work. One day a call came from M.ARUNAGIRI saying that his brother received in excess from me so there is a lot of confusion in his family. Then I asked for a bill to settle the amount and also I asked M.ARUNAGIRI (Teacher) if you were to pay the amount when you will ready to pay it because you only took your brother, teach him underground tricks and said you are responsible for everything. He said his brother is the contractor who will pay it and why am I asking about it to him. In the mean time the water line was broken and my wife approached our contractor working in the nearby site to correct the water line and drainage problem at once. He insulted her in front of the labourers and sent a person after a day to correct the water line. The drainage problem was corrected after 3 - 4 months. Regrettably none of the builder vouches or put quality stamp on the property which can only be deciphered post possession.
The house was used only from end of March 2009. Post usage heavy water seepage started from the headroom walls and glasses, Main switch board. The builder was called upon and requested to repair the damage which out of poor civil work. The builder is not taking prompt action despite several communications.
I have made a request to produce the purchase bills for exact amount for the extra works done and I asked to settle the account by giving a bill and said that he had to pay the excess money to me as per my estimate. He took more than six months for preparing a false bill. Often he is informing to my father in law & mother in law that he had prepared the bill and I have to pay only Rs. 20,000, 40,000, 60,000 etc., But he submitted a bogus bill repeating many items again and again showing I have to pay Rs.1.5Lakhs. I asked him to explain the things because I’m a layman. He said he will come and explain it and finish the work after his daughter marriage. After submitting the bill without giving any time to check it they asked for Rs.50,000/= for taking dress for his daughter marriage and they told before the mediator and me he should give a written assurance about his completion of the bending work. His daughter is going to give birth a child but the bending work has no progress. He had given me lot of date for rectification but now it’s around 12-16 month crossed and I haven't received any sort of completion work.
The builder is not ready to respond but unnecessarily shouted in the road when I was not in the house. There was no improvement in the situation after talking through the mediators on 10th May 2010. But still we don't want to go for his work; we want to do work with some other guy. We want that he will pay for that and we don't want to repeat our mistake to give work back to him. For the builder this is mere a house but for people like us it is our dream, nobody has right to play with this. Cunningly he planed and spent a lot in decorative works to get contract from others. The plot owners are giving offer to the worthless contractor without consulting the building owner, also seeing the decorative work and not knowing anything about the contractor hence these guys are doing fraud with many people.
The lack of accountability and ethics in the system of law and order against such white culprits, the fact remains that no amount of compensation can make up for the trauma and mental torture that I and my family members have gone through and further how long. May I know what the options open for me to do now is. It will be a great help if you give an idea to solve my problem and I would like to request you to take necessary action against the Unregistered Builder M.BALASUBRAMANIAM@ RAMALINGAM and his brother. Hope to hear from your end soon.
Sincerely yours,
Ravi .N