Month: May 2017

On Monday, May 8, Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) ordered the allottees, who had been allotted plots in HUDA sectors to complete at least half of the construction within 2 years of the construction gets approved in lay outs. If any of the projects defaults this timeline, it will have to foot the bill of heavy penalty to have extended time period of another year to meet the condition and also retaining the ownership of the same plot.

A noticed issued on this Monday, where HUDA has ordered 1060 landowners under HUDA jurisdiction (officer-I) to finish the minimum amount of development by March 2019. As per the notice it’s compulsory to complete construction on at least 50% of the acceptable ground coverage, and obtain occupation certificates (OC) by March 2019. Felons will be accountable to pay additional fee as per the rates prearranged in the extension policy of HUDA.

Copies of this notice have also been lined with the administrative and the account department of the state. Plot owners infringe this timeline HUDA will charge penalties from them invariably. This new policy is the revised version of HUDA policy in January. Residential/Commercial/ Institutional any development need to complete their construction within the measured timeframe. HUDA has the power to make these plot owners lose their allotment, if there’s no completion of the construction within 15 years. Under this revised rule HUDA will provide OC to the projects which have at least finished 25% of their developments instead of 10% as it used to provide for earlier.

The decision has taken on the count of vacant lands, even after several years of allotment, which eventually causes huge property tax for HUDA. Coming next to this amendment HUDA also has conducted a survey which will analyze the exact count of plots which have less than 50% development. HUDA has by issued notice to 1060 plot owners under the real estate officer-I, another 4000 allotees under the jurisdiction of officer-II are also found to be withstanding the norms and will be served notice soon. Within 2 years of allotment various sectors should start their respective constructions.

Welcoming the move by Haryana Government the RERA expert of WB Mr. Mahesh Somani said,” It’s a positive initiative taken by the government, for pushing developers to wrap up their respective projects without any delay. Mostly it’s seen in flats in Rajarhat where merely 25% construction happened in 4-5 years after the plot allotment. I genuinely think Bengal Govt. should introduce such stringent norms to expedite project development.”

-LNN(Liyans News Network)

Maharashtra Ownership of Flats Act, 1963 (Mofa) and Maharashtra apartment ownership Act 170 will be analyzed by the housing department along with the Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RA). As per the official statement of the housing department they will ascertain the sections that can be qualified after RERA scenario.

With uncertainty widespread over Mofa, Credai has declared section 92 of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 has “expressly repealed” the Maharashtra Housing (Regulation and Development) Act, 2012.

If any provision of Mofa is insignificant to RERA norms, it will be bypassed from the section 89 and the provisions which are on the button will go on hovering. Initially the state had released pro-consumer RERA rules, claiming that there is no dilution of the central act. But, after coming into force The Fight for RERA, a homebuyers’ group which campaigned for RERA, 2016 Act revealed that the state government curbed the act to root for builders.

Indian Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF) suggests that real estate is the sole section from where 5-7% GDP of the nation comes.  It’s certain that builders raise dough for elections, naturally government wouldn’t like to axe down the steady source revenue. The imprisonment clause is majorly opposed in the state RERA rules. Whereas, experts foresee that Indian real estate industry will touch $180 billion by 2020.

The Maharashtra real estate rules only consent builders to deposit 70 percent of the advance booking amount from home buyers in a separate bank account though it doesn’t include the section 4 (2) of RERA regarding the extricating ongoing and new projects. This in fact aims that builders should if possible deposit 70 percent of the money already taken from their customers after subtracting cost of structure and cost of land which would be in line with what the Ministry of HUPA has suggested. Besides the state rules say, completion Certificate (CC) and occupation certificate (OC) are interchangeable.

In this context RERA expert of West Bengal, Mr. Mahesh Somani says, “States shouldn’t dilute RERA for their profit. Else, the law would fail to relief homebuyers. Only by the means of RERA realty industry might regain its former grandeur.” Since WB hasn’t notified its respective RERA rules, people are advised to wait for July 31, to buy property in Kolkata”- added Somani.

_LNN (Liyans News Network)

 

 

 

RERA says, “The allottee shall have the right to cancel/withdraw his  allotment in the project as provided in the Act: Provided that where the allottee proposes to cancel/withdraw from the project without any fault of the promoter, the promoter herein is entitled to forfeit the booking amount paid for the allotment. The balance amount of money paid by the allottee shall be returned by the promoter to the allottee within 45 days of such cancellation.”
This means, homebuyers can actually exit from realty deals whenever they want. The new Real Estate Regulation Act (RERA) specifies that home-buyers can actually cancel allotment of apartments at any development stage, even if there’s no trickery from the builders’ end. Similarly the builder will have to return the amount taken earlier from the consumers within 45 days time limit, after deducting the booking charge.

Anand Mathur, who chose a particular property from a leading property portal in Kolkata and already had paid the booking amount in 2016, has decided to quit the deal for personal monetary loss. Now, the builder is not ready to return the same. A year back, either homebuyers were never returned their paid amount or they had to be on hold since the project wouldn’t get sold to someone else. Again, if the developer crossed the timeline of the scheduled possession time, he has to refund the entire amount along with a surcharge of interest within 45 days.

Considered reasons under buyers can cancel the booking?

• Family emergency or dissatisfying market speculation can be the reason for this exit.
• Changing of mind/ disliking the project any long can also be a cause of get off. In that case, developer can offer alternative site to choose from.

Under RERA ambit, builders are bound by the law that they have to return the amount within 45 days time period.
RERA is being addressed as anti-builder statue. Builders think that most of the rules of RERA are bigotry. RERA has no answer to some alarming questions, which is- if a buyer books multiple units at a same point of time and pays installment for only one, how will the builder return the booking amount within the decided time period, after chucking off the booking amount is rather impractical, because a chunk of the collected amount has taken up for different project development or land purchase.
This is complete injustice to the builders, despite white-hat practice an allottee can anytime cancels the booking and namely ask for returning the amount within 45 days, whereas there is no way a builder can withdraw money from the escrow account.

Mr. Mahesh Somani, the RERA expert of West Bengal chapter says, “Builders are finally bound by the central norms. It’s the previous cutting the corners acts of the developers that has mired that entire industry. RERA will definitely provide equal justice to the both buyers and builders, by clearing up every ill-defined operation.”
_LNN (Liyans News Network)

It’s not the first time, where a central act has fallen victim to states. After repeated push by the central government, states fell short to meet the deadline of RERA timeframe. The act came into force as scheduled on May 1, 2016. Several states have notified their drafts under RERA authority. But, in most of the cases either they are partial or mostly curbed. Gujrat was the first state which submitted its state rules of Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 (RERA). To bring desired clarity in realty sector the state will further notify the remaining regulation within this week, followed by the process of setting up an interim state-level regulatory authority (RA).

Gujat hasn’t notified some sections of RERA that were declared by the Union ministry of housing and urban poverty alleviation on April 17, 2017. According to the government sources, – the remaining rules which are going to be notified probably on Thursday are exactly what the central government has announced in the previous month. The rules are with the legal department, once gets clearance these will be notified.
Gujrat government had notified rules referring to state regulatory authority, its powers and functions and appellate tribunal on October 29, 2016. The state is yet to notify rules for sections 3-19 of the Act, which own the clause for the realty builders, registration of real estate projects and registration of agents as well. The earlier notified state rules were also according to the announced sections of the regulations by the Union ministry of housing and urban poverty alleviation (HUPA).

The appointment of RA is still under process. Initially the state formed a selection committee and now is set to frame an interim authority as well. The appointment of RA holds a crucial role in state RERA development, as it connects state issues with the central and owns the complete authority of investigation in respective state realty issues. The state has already originated regulations for real estate appellate tribunal and the tribunal will be operative soon after the rest rules get notified.
Besides, state governments need to speed-up the development of website (RERA), for registering every project’s details information, including personal information about the promoters and builders.
–LNN (Liyans News Network) – The leading property portal in Kolkata with above 3000 listed projects. We offer free property listing for selling/renting real estate items.