Had a R.A. Bill Payment dispute with a developer. Dispute resolved with termination of contract and signing a full and final payment agreement with an arbitration clause in the agreement. Received payment as per agreement. Filed for appointment of arbitrator in Delhi High Court. Appeal rejected on the ground that there is no dispute in the clauses of agreement. My questions are: 1) Can S.D. be claimed as held by the developer. 2) Can termination charges we claim as per the terms and conditions of the contract Since S.D. and termination of contract were not dispute/agreement.
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1) once you have received payment as per agreement there is no dispute between the parties .
2) it is necessary to peruse agreement signed by you with builder to advice
3) once you have signed full and final agreement there is novation of contract . old contract gets superseded by new contract
4) in fresh agreement signed apparently SD / termination charges were not mentioned . it cannot be claimed by builder
1. When you say that the dispute had been resolved with the termination of contract and a full and final settlement was executed, what necessitated the filing of an appeal in the High Court?
2. Here this is no question of the court going into the validity of the right of the developer to claim the SD. The fact of the matter is when the settlement had been reached at, in pursuance of which you received the agreed amount, none of the parties can be allowed to re-open any dispute arising out of the contract which had been terminated. The appeal, it seems, has rightly been rejected.
The conditions of the agreement is to be seen for proper opinion. However as far as security deposit is concerned, once the contract is terminated and the matter resolved, the builder has no rights to retain the SD with him without any valid reason.
If he refuses to refund the same, a legal notice may be served on him demanding the same. In case he refuses on the grounds quoted therein, citing the conditions of the agreement, you may go for a suit for recovery of the same .
