| I had booked a flat in Kanpur and paid a substantial amount, but the builder has now cancelled my allotment. What legal remedies are available to me? |
A builder's unilateral cancellation of a flat allotment is one of the most distressing situations a homebuyer in Kanpur can face — particularly after making substantial payments over months or years. The reassurance I give clients immediately is that the law is firmly protective here, and a builder who cancels without genuine, contractual justification faces serious legal consequences.
Your most direct and powerful remedy is a complaint before UP RERA under the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act 2016. RERA prohibits a builder from altering the terms of the registered agreement unilaterally, and a cancellation that is not backed by a specific, contractually valid ground is a violation of the Act. On a complaint to UP RERA (filed at www.up-rera.in using Form M at ₹1,000), the RERA Authority can restore your allotment, direct possession to be handed over, or — if you prefer — order a full refund of all amounts paid with interest at SBI MCLR plus 2% from the date of each payment under Section 18 of RERA. UP RERA has a strong track record of enforcement against non-compliant builders, and the UP Real Estate Appellate Tribunal (REAT) has confirmed that buyers' rights under RERA are absolute and cannot be extinguished by procedural manoeuvres by builders.
If the cancellation involves fraud or misrepresentation, criminal remedies under the BNS — cheating under Section 318, criminal breach of trust under Section 316 — are available alongside the RERA complaint. A civil suit for specific performance of the builder's agreement, with an injunction restraining the builder from re-allotting the flat to anyone else while the case is pending, is a parallel civil remedy that gives the court power to compel the builder to complete the transaction. The RERA and property lawyers at the Kanpur panel of Aapka Legal Advice can advise on which combination of RERA complaint, civil suit, and criminal complaint best fits your situation and file the applications promptly before the builder has a chance to re-allot the flat.
Preserve every document from your entire transaction — the allotment letter, every payment receipt, the registered agreement for sale, all correspondence with the builder, and any communication about the cancellation — because these documents are the foundation of every remedy available to you.