Purchasers seek justice for condominiums without deeds for 20 years

By Lakmal Sooriyagoda

A writ application has been filed in the Court of Appeal by two purchasers of condominiums at a completed condominium property called “Dawson Court” on Amarasekera Mawatha in Colombo 5, alleging that purchasers have possessed 12 condominiums without title deeds for more than 20 years. The petitioners are seeking a Writ of Mandamus against the Condominium Management Authority requiring it to take over the “State” vested property in terms of its powers and execute title deeds for all purchasers of condominiums at Dawson Court.

The petitioners stated that the developer, the owner of the land Manisha Homes (Pvt) Ltd., had failed to re-register the said company under Sec. 487 (3) of the Companies Act No. 7 of 2007, when the said statutory provision required all existing companies to re-register before the deadline given in the new Companies Act No. 7 of 2007.

The failure to re-register resulted in the said developer being struck off from the registered companies list by the Companies Registrar in 2010 with its assets being vested in the “State” under Sec. 487(5) of the Companies Act. Several cases had been filed in the past by purchasers in the Commercial High Court and District Court, but they had failed to obtain relief due to technical reasons. This is an extraordinary situation which had arisen in 2010 when the owner or the developer became defunct due to the operation of Sec. 487(5) of the Companies Act. Several irregularities had taken place in the registration of the building as a “condominium property” due to the failure to identify the legal owner of the property. Counsel Ajithaa Edirimanne instructed by Diana Weerasinghe appeared for the Petitioners.