CanFin Homes Fined by Consumer Court for Withholding Property Documents

                Bengaluru: A housing finance company that 
failed to return the title deed and other 
documents pertaining to a site to a 
Bengalurean, though he had repaid the loan, 
was recently 
ordered by a consumer court to give him back 
all the papers and also pay him over Rs 1.3 
lakh as compensation.
C Sathyanathan, 58, a resident of MSR Nagar in 
Bengaluru, raised a loan of Rs 60 lakh from 
CanFin Homes Ltd, in Sept 2014 with an 
interest of 11.20% per annum to buy a site to 
build a house.
 
The loan was for a tenure of 15 years and he 
had to pay an EMI of Rs 68,965.
He quit his job and using all the money he got 
from the pension and savings, he cleared the 
loan in 2018, as he wanted to attend to other 
family commitments. He wrote to the 
company in Sept 2018, requesting that his 
property documents be returned to him but the 
company didn't respond.
After waiting for a year in vain, Sathyanathan 
approached the IV Additional District 
Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, 
Bengaluru with a complaint against CanFin 
Homes, 
seeking relief. He said that though he had 
cleared the loan, the company had not returned 
him the original documents of his property.

The company alleged that the elderly man still 
had a balance amount of Rs 1.20 lakh as a 
penalty that needed to be paid. They further 
said that the borrower had violated the loan 
terms that required him to buy a site and 
construct a house on it, but he had only 
purchased the site.
After examining all the documents provided by 
both sides, the commission recently declared 
that CanFin Homes was guilty of deficiency in 
the service provided and, had also failed to 
produce cogent documentary evidence to 
prove that the complainant still owed it money.

The commission ordered the company to 
return the original title deed and other 
documents of the property, which he had 
deposited with it, while availing loan. It also 
said the company 
has to pay Sathyanathan Rs 100 per day from 
the day of the order till it returns all the 
documents.
The court further directed the company to pay 
him a compensation of Rs 1 lakh for deficiency 
in service, Rs 20,000 for causing him mental 
agony, and Rs 10,000 as litigation costs. 
The company has been given 45 days to 
comply with the order.


Source : Economic Times