NEW DELHI | MUMBAI | BENGALURU | KOLKATA: Even on an overseas trip, Aditya Mishra, the CFO of a multinational firm in Gurgaon, checks for WhatsApp updates from his group of about 100 Unitech home buyers waiting for delivery of their luxury villas three years past the deadline. The group is now exploring legal options after a protest havan (a fire ritual) at the project site of Alder Grove at Nirvana Country 2 in Gurgaon, several meetings with Unitech executives and many mails to the company’s promoters failed to get things moving.About 20 of them have filed cases with the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC). The group has a Facebook page, groups on Google and WhatsApp and a presence on Twitter.Angry home buyers are no longer hiding or afraid to take on the might of developers for delaying the delivery of apartments and villas and changing building plans. They are banding together to fight for their homes using all the means at their disposal, including staging unique protests at project sites and going to court.They use social media actively to form groups, discuss problems and publicise their efforts. Their litany of complaints includes delayed possession, extra charges and changes in apartment sizes or building plans without their consent. "This is my first house and I continue to stay on rent even as this project is terribly delayed," Mishra said on the phone from China. A Unitech spokesman said several factors beyond the company’s control resulted in the delays and it is taking steps to complete its projects."Over the past few months, we have not only ramped up construction activity but also quadrupled the workforce at our project sites," the spokesman said.According to property research firm Liases Foras, more than half of the 17 lakh apartments launched between 2008 and 2011 have been delayed by at least one year. In the Delhi-National Capital Region, over 1.7 lakh homes were late by more than 48 months, followed by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, with over 82,000 homes. Builders say the reasons for delays include multiple approvals, labour shortage and lack of funds.Home-buyer activism has been spurred by favourable rulings for consumers handed down by courts and regulatory authorities. In 2011, the Competition Commission of India, acting on complaints by DLF apartment owners, fined the company Rs 630 crore for abusing its dominant position in Gurgaon.Earlier this week, NCDRC asked Unitech to compensate buyers at 12% per annum for delays, overruling a builder-buyer agreement that offered 1.8%.The court said further delays would be compensated at 18% per annum. Since the order, advocate Sushil Kaushik’s phone hasn’t stopped ringing. "I’ve got calls from over 100 buyers from across the country in the last two days. Most want to know if they can also file similar complaints. Such judgments give people hope," said Kaushik, who fought the case on behalf of buyers of Unitech Vistas in Sector 70 of Gurgaon.Buyers are finding comfort in unity. When Housing Development & Infrastructure Ltd asked apartment buyers in its Kurla project in Mumbai to pay more, they fought back and got an out-of-court settlement for a lower amount. "It’s our collective victory," said Saifee Akbarali Chulawala, a buyer in the project. HDIL did not respond to a questionnaire sent by ET. In the case of Indiabulls Greens, a project in Panvel, the buyer group said apartments in the first phase that were to be delivered in 2012-13 will now be ready in 2017 and the project layout was changed."We are in the process of registration of our group at the moment after which we will be moving CCI against Indiabulls Real Estate ," said 27-year-old textile exporter Dev Purohit."Indiabulls Real Estate has been delivering all its projects well within time. July 2016 is the scheduled time for delivery of Panvel Greens (as per agreement)," Indiabulls Real Estate said. "We have given buyers several options, including exit with 12% interest benefit."At the Nirmal Lifestyle project at Kalyan in Mumbai, about 100 buyers plan to sue as a group because the developer hasn’t committed to a new deadline from the previous one of 2013.