[Resolved]  Melur Meadows — Not refunding of Rs 15.75 lacs paid

Address:600 032
Website:www.melurmeadows.com

After a trial stay at Melur Meadows Retirement, near Mettupalayam, Coimbatore, I became interested in leasing an unfurnished flat for five years, with a long term view of spending my last days at Mealur Meadows.

Directors were in financial difficulties. I empathised and for the sake of future good will, I paid them 15.75 Lacs, full amount for the lease. That was in January 2016.
However, after studying the lease, and due to other difficulties, I decided not to proceed.
I did not sign the lease agreement.

The company (Melur Meadows Alternative Lifestyle Private Limited) has been holding on to the 15.75 lacs since January 2016.
In an email, a director did promise that they will refund the money.
But they missed two promised dates for making the refund.

Now they are giving me all sorts of excuses.
One of excuses about their inability to refund is:
They are in a dispute with DTCP (Department of Town and Country Planning).
So they can't sell any of the 25 remaining flats. They can only lease the flats but have not found anyone.

I requested them to pay me a small interest on the 15.75 lacs, till they are able to pay.
But they have not agreed.
They are unscrupulous and are intend on enjoying free ride of 15.75 lacs since January 2016.

They have now gone back on their promises to refund.
The directors are referring to clauses in the written lease agreement, such as 'lock-in period'.
Although I DID NOT sign the lease agreement.
When I pointed out that I did not sign the agreement, they argued, "why did you pay the amount?".
I replied, "I had the intention, but for various reasons, I had to change my mind".
I also pointed out that since there is no written a contract/agreement in place, they have a legal
obligation to refund my money.

I tried for many months. Have been patient, understanding and flexible.
But now suspect that they have no intention to return my money.
I am 71 years old and can not afford to lose 15.75 lacs.

Can someone advice?
[protected]@yahoo.co.uk
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Aug 14, 2017
Complaint marked as Resolved 
Melur Meadows customer support has been notified about the posted complaint.
Jul 08, 2017
Updated by Desi
The directors I was talking to are
Major Sathya
and
Mr Srinath Venkat
Verified Support
Jul 11, 2017
Melur Meadows Customer Care's response
Its actually quite sad when someone we held in higher esteem like Mr Job, stoops to telling half truths. That too
to avoid bearing the cost of their sudden decisions and whims.

Mr Job has quite incorrectly claimed that we are due to pay Rs 15, 75, 000/- when the figure is Rs 15, 25, 000/- less monies that he owes towards food consumed by him and the services of a massage therapist, whom he went away without paying despite promising to do so.

We have his own email accepting this is the amount due to him.

Second we have not denied paying him this amount, but sought time because of the spot that Mr Job has put us in, because of his sudden, irresponsible and one sided decision to breach an agreement.

He claims that he never signed the agreement, but cleverly has hidden certain facts. He has misled others and create a scenario to seek sympathy..

Let me put down the facts.

Mr Job has been showing an interest in our project since 24th April 2012,

Starting with our first mail carrying details sent on 03 May 2012 we had kept him apprised of our offerings and terms as well as our insistence that he must make a visit and trial stay to apprise himself of the place, the terms and the rules before making your decision.

In fact vide his email dated 02 Jun 2012, he appreciated our insistence on the trial stay and to apprise himself of the place, terms and rules before making a long term decision.

He made his first plans to visit us in Nov 2012, after that in Nov 2013 and 2014.

However it was only on 26 Dec 2015, that he finally visited and had a trial stay.

He came stayed and liked our place immensely and saw it as a place to spend time in during the harsh winter months o[censored]K, where hes normally resides.

He also shared that he already had a place in Cochin but wanted a place like ours because he wanted a heartful place like ours where he would be taken care of as he was single and alone

During his visit he was shown all the available units, including D 30 which he chose.

We shared all our costs and terms with him during his stay. It was well after he was apprised of our latest tariffs and terms that he chose
to ‘Lease’ a double bedroom house.

He wanted a double bedroom unit despite being a single person to accommodate some of his furniture from his Cochin house, even though we tried to convince him for a single bedroom unit.

The purchase price of the Unit he chose was 32 Lakhs. The 5 year lease of the same was less than half of that during which he would enjoy total ownership.

He chose to lease rather than purchase and on 03 Jan 2016, we provided him a proposal number LP 004 for the Lease o[censored]nit No D, 30/- which is a double bedroom un-furnished unit.

Pls note the salient features of that proposal and our lease terms

Lease Period 5 years
Refundable Deposit Rs 15, 25, 000
Non-Refundable Deposit Rs 50, 000/-
Minimum Lock-in Period. of three years.

Based on this proposal and after being apprised of the form he signed an application dated 04 Jan 2016 and signed in Mr George Pentalian as Next of KIn.

When he was shown the unit, which was absolutely new, he was apprised that unless he finalised the lease and remitted the amounts, we would not be in a position to take up finishing of the house and making it ready for occupation.

In addition we said that we needed acknowledgement from his next of kin to take up responsibility for him in case he fell ill. He promised to obtain it for us shortly and left us saying that he will remit the amount.

He scheduled two remittances of Rs 5 Lakhs for the 6th and the 7th.of Jan 2016

His email dated 12 Jan 2016, in which he have clearly asked for a receipt for the 10 Lakhs that he remitted stating that it is advance against a 5 year lease of Deluxe D 30 Cottage.

Accordingly, we finished up various works required by him, barring the rain water gutter and ss mesh for ventilation louvre, and sent him an email on 18 Jan 2016.

He sent us an email 28 jan 2016, stating the following
"Driver of the van need to return after unloading. They can not wait around for the agreement to be signed by Major Satyam. All I can possibly do is to pay you before arriving and bring the agreement signed by me”.

A clear indication that he intended to bring your furniture from Cochin as he had informed us and that he would sign the agreement.

Subsequently on 28 Jan we sent him an email stating that we would allow occupation only after he remitted the the full amount.
We also sent him a price list for various fittings such as fans and lights that he wanted.

It was after this that he remitted a further amount of 1 Lakh on 01 Feb 2016 and 4.75, 000/- on 02 Feb 2016 and informed us over phone that he would be arriving shortly.

He made an interim visit and indicated that he was looking for furniture at which time we gave him a few references of vendors.

After that there was silence for quite some time from his end.

On 04 Jun 2016, we sent him a reminder asking him for his date date of occupation and the signed agreement.

There was absolutely no response either by email or phone from his end for nearly a year.

Finally on Feb 20th 2017 he sent us an email stating that he had decided to change your mind about moving into Melur Meadows Retirement Village for reasons of finding it difficult to furnish the unit. He stated that he enjoyed Melur Meadows and also stated that wanted wanted to stay periodically at Melur Meadows. This was a shock to us as we had been expecting him to take up residence of the unit into which we had put money to make it ready to occupy. We informed him we would resolve the issue on return from travelling

In March 2017, he visited Melur Meadows met with one of our Director Mr Srinath who had taken over day to day management.

Mr Srinath being new into the role was not fully conversant with all the facts but being a person who wishes to serve seniors, he took a sympathetic view.
He clearly explained to Mr Job that we had put the amount given by Mr Job into the unit that Mr Job was to occupy and that unless we found an alternative buyer or lessee we would not be able to generate the funds to give it back to him.
Mr Job who knew that he was the person violating the agreement, clearly stated to him that he understood the situation and would wait for the refund but would appreciate if a part of the funds could be organised at the earliest.

Accordingly Mr Srinath agreed to
a) adjust the non-refundable amount of 50, 000/- against his future stay at rate of Rs 500 per day
b) return a portion of the refundable deposit as soon as the bank released some OD funds against our property
c) waive off the three year lock-in and locate a tenant or buyer and return his money at the earliest possible

Mr Job was supposed to settle dues to for food and to massage therapist, which he claimed he would but left the poor guy in the lurch.

We were unable to meet the deadline because of a change in rules by a High Court, which prevented Panchayat Approved Properties like ours
from being sold or mortgaged and Mr Srinath informed Mr Job that we were looking for other tenants.

Subsequently in May during a telephonic conversation between Mr Job and the undersigned, I explained the situation and informed him that due to the change in rules we were not in a position to raise and OD or sell the property though we had prospective buyers but had to wait for tenants or lessees.
I also inform Mr Job that we had a few tenants in the pipeline and that one was almost finalised, who was just waiting for an auspicious date.
Mr Job made two requests of me
1. Whether we could pay some interest on the refundable portion of the deposit
2. Whether a portion of the 50, 000- could be used to feed poor people.

I accepted we could oblige him on his second request. But would have to look into various aspects, as there were legal angles to look into. I requested some time from Mr Job and said that latest by mid of July we would come to a proper arrangement and close the matter to his satisfaction.

He accepted all this and said he would wait. After all he is the one who has changed his mind about for a year to occupy the unit.

In the meantime, without any warning he went onto Facebook and posted a number o[censored]ntruths and labelled us as cheats.
This resulted in the person who was to on the verge of finalising the unit allotted to Mr Job to panic and cancel his plans

As a result of this we have not only lost that but several other tenants.

Things to Note are
1. We have been running our services since 2010 and have never short changed one person.
2. There are several leases all running on the same terms as that given to Mr Job.
3. We never asked for any charity or help from Mr Job. All we said was that we would finish and make the unit complete on receipt of his payment
4. Mr Job has till date never stated any disagreement with any of the terms of the lease.
5. From Jan 2016 till the Feb 2017 when Mr Job sent us his decision not to occupy there was no information from Mr Job that he had sent us money only to help us or that he would not occupy the unit or that he did not feel comfortable
6. We have at no time refused to pay, only requested us time to find a tenant as it was his decision that has led to the situation.
7. The unit chosen by Mr Job is still unoccupied and vacant and we have spend money on maintaining it for the last 19 Months.
8. Had Mr Job decided to terminate last year itself, we would have been in a position to sell the unit and realize a much higher value of 32 Lakhs.

Despite all this our intention was and continues to remain to Refund all monies due to Mr Job to him.

However,
Mr Job has taken to the public forum and spreading falsehood and has besmirched our name which has caused us loss of face and prospective tenants.
He is also trying to wash his obligations off and expect us to carry the complete burden of his decisions.

As a result of this we are in the process of writing to him under legal advice.

Sathya
Oct 22, 2017
Updated by Desi
Reply and comments by Major Sathya ia packed with lies.
I wanted to spend my last days at Melur Meadows.
I wanted to help them when the directors were in financial difficulties.
Major Sathya asked me to trust him. That is why I paid them the money in advance and without being careful.
Seven months have gone by since they promised me the refund. In writing.
But they have not done so.
They have stopped replying to my emails.
Major Sathya stated, "we are in the process of writing to him under legal advice".
I have heard nothing.
Could someone please advice me on what to do?
Oct 22, 2017
Updated by Desi
Statement by Major Sathya, "Mr Job was supposed to settle dues to for food and to massage therapist, which he claimed he would but left the poor guy in the lurch."
This is again a lie. I paid for the massage and also paid them another Rs 1000 as gratuity.
I paid all bills for my stay and all the food.
But curiously, no receipts were given to me.
Mar 17, 2020
Updated by Desi
It was way back in January 2016, when I paid Melur Meadows the sum of Rs. 15.75 Lacs, the full amount that I paid for a lease that I did not sign.
I paid this amount in advance, in good faith and to help them with temporary financial difficulties, they claimed that they have.
Despite the written promises made by Srinath Venkat, the director, more than four years ago, MM has not refunded me a single Rupee. Last year, they sent me an email making threats.
I am 74 years old and have to rely on a pension.
I can not afford to lose 15.75 lacs.
Please! Is there anything at all that Consumer Complaint or anyone else reading this can do to help?
Thank you in anticipation.
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