The State’s Real Estate Regulatory Act (RERA)

In a major development, the Uttar Pradesh (UP) Cabinet has rolled out the state’s Real Estate Regulatory Act (RERA) draft rules. The act will regulate India’s realty sector, while providing homebuyers a powerful weapon to cope with the issues they are face while dealing with developers. Experts from Arun Dev Builders Ltd analyze these rules and their implications for home buyers.

Registration

• Compulsory registration of the real estate developer and project with the Appellate Authority
• No promotions and sales prior to the registration

Title

• Mandatory for the promoter to submit a copy of the legal title report and details of encumbrances, if any
• No clause introduced, pertaining to the compensation to be provided to allotters, during any loss attributable to defective title of the land.

Escrow account

• Developer has to deposit 70% of the amount for the project in a separate account with a listed bank to bear the expenditure of the realty project.
• This amount can be withdrawn proportionately as per the percentage of completion.

Online project details

The entire project details including, sanctioned plan, floor space index, layout plan, specifications of the project, legitimate copy of approvals and instigation certificate, must be available over the internet.

Ongoing projects

Ongoing project implies to a project where the completion certificate is still not issued but excludes projects wherein:

• The services have been transferred to the local authority for maintenance
• Where Residents’ Welfare Association (RWA) maintain the common areas and facilities
• Where the entire development work is completed and sale/lease agreements of 60% of the apartments/plots have been signed
• Construction work is finished and request for completion certificate has been submitted

Sale of the apartment

For the current projects, the promoter ought to unveil the size of the apartment based on carpet area, albeit earlier sold on super built-up area or built-up area.

Penalty for non-adherence  

• A number of imprisonment clauses have been introduced in the compounding clauses, where monetary compensation is paid, as a substitute for actual punishment

Experts from Arun Dev Builders Ltd aver, “The UP Real Estate Regulatory Act will likely be implemented by November 2017. Numerous home buyers in Noida, Greater Noida, and the Ghaziabad are expecting great benefits from the act, as now they can easily deal with disputes regarding payments issues, project delays, and other related matters.”