Is Karnataka again going to sacrifice home buyers for the builders’ lobby?
- One of the prominent features of RERA will be that there will be a regulatory authority to address the buyers’ grievances
- The builder lobby in the city is already conducting discussions and deliberations to see how they can have a workaround to the rules
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To prevent any laxity in the RERA norms, Namma Bengaluru Foundation along with Fight for RERA – Karnataka Chapter have submitted a request letter to Kapil Mohan, IAS, Principal Secretary to the Government, Housing Department to make the rules of RERA more stringent. The Act aims to bring the unregulated real estate sector under its domain.
One of the prominent features of RERA will be that there will be a regulatory authority to address the buyers’ grievances with builders and developers. So now buyers can finally expect some action in case they are cheated. It will also involve making every single phase of construction separate and registration can be done only on completion of the said phase so that future buyers are not left hanging in case the project fails to take off.
Among other issues, the Act will also deal with registration of the project, completing projects on time, no random change in construction plan of the building and more. Considering these stringent norms, the developers had raised the issue of delay in various sanctions and certificates as reasons for causing the late delivery of promised projects.
The builder lobby in the city is already conducting discussions and deliberations to see how they can have a workaround to the rules. Keeping this mind, the letter also requested the government not to pay heed to the request of builder/developer lobby and drop or to dilute any of the norms while notifying the final Rules on RERA. The letter also addresses the fact that all ongoing projects as stipulated in the first proviso of Section 3(1) should be automatically covered in the RERA ACT and Rules.
MS Shankar, Convener, Fight for RERA – Karnataka Chapter said: “The team Fight for RERA - Karnataka Chapter along with NBF and 20+ suffering home buyers met Kapil Mohan - Principal Secretary Housing, Government of Karnataka. While our appeal for strong RERA was heard patiently we wait with our finger crossed and good hope for notification of RERA Rules from Karnataka Government.”
Some of the areas stressed upon in the letter are:
# Physical handover of the apartment should only be given along with the common areas and other facilities and amenities, as promised at the time of sale in accordance with the brochure and project details uploaded on Regulator’s web site i.e. when the entire project is in a habitable condition.
#Maintenance charges should be charged from the Allottee only after issuance of completion certificate and not prior.
#Car parking (Open, closed, Stilt) should not be allowed to be sold which should be allocated to all allottees as this parking is part of common areas which is already covered in the cost of construction of the project, charged from the allottees
# For all Ongoing projects, the Promoter should take consent letter of 2/3rd buyers in the project as provided in Section 14 of the Act, if there have been any changes in the approved plan, sanctioned plan and specifications of those projects.
Sridhar Pabbisetty, CEO, Namma Bengaluru Foundation said: “The home buyers are the most vulnerable sufferers in the present generation. Caught between demand of EMIs from banks and unending excuse from builders on getting possession of their dream home, each buyer continues to suffer. RERA rules need the modifications we presented and the final rules will be a test of this government's commitment to the citizens of the state. We do hope they don't end up favouring the builders again.”
If the RERA works in favour of the home buyers, then buying property will no longer be a nightmare of papers and cash flowing out of our pockets to bribe various departments in getting sanctions and permissions cleared. There will be more accountability and informed decisions can be made.
