inally, West Bengal Govt. professes The West Bengal Housing Industry Regulation Bill 2017 after missing the time-stretched granted by the central ministry. July 31, 2017 was the deadline for all the states for their respective state RERA notification, cited the central government. West Bengal was one of those states that fell short in meeting the mentioned time frame. However, sticking to the previous disclosure, The West Bengal Housing Industry Regulation Bill 2017 was passed by the state assembly on Aug 16, 2017.
The bill was moved by West Bengal Housing Minister Sovon Chatterjee. The opposition party CPI (M) claimed that it should be spelled out by the select committee, which was declined. Despite all the oppositions of the came from the real estate stake holders for sidelining most of the ongoing projects state chose to prioritize the central norms. The state Housing Minister also declared that construction developments that will be structured on filling up any wetland, state government will take strict action against those. He too pointed out in the Assembly that the Chief Minister has given a clear instruction on this subject and no housing complexes will be permitted without going through the clearances issued by various departments.
Reportedly, all the housing projects above 500 square metres or consisting of eight apartments are required to be registered with the state regulator Housing Industry Regulatory Authority (HIRA), after overall completion of the notification. The bill recommends forming the HIRA within the next 60 days of the notification.
At a glance of the West Bengal Housing Industry Regulation Bill 2017–
Ongoing projects without occupancy certificates should apply for the same to HIRA within a period of three months from the commencement of the Act. A promoter has to maintain 70% of the received fund to the escrow account for the existing project development purpose. If a developer is incapable of delivering timely possession, then buyer has the right to cancel the agreement. Under this circumstance the builder has to pay off the booking amount with interest within 45 days of time period. After possession if there is any constructional dispute and the promoter refuses fixing it, then he has to reckon the interest along with the compensation amount. An agreement of 20 pages will be signed between builder and the buyer. If one party evades any rule, then the other owns the authority to cancel the deal. The agreement should contain the details of project delivery and mention the time slots of partly payments made by the consumers.
Asking on the West Bengal state RERA notification, Mr. Mahesh Somani, The Chairman – National RERA Committee, National Association of Realtors India said, “A homebuyer saves his every penny for purchasing his dream home. Implementation of RERA in its true law and spirit will definitely recover primeval buyers’ sentiment to the real estate market of the state. Being the biggest reform of Indian realty market RERA will sentence all the loop holes and double-dealings of the developers and realtors for whom the industry had lost its transparency and saleability. It’s expected that residential property sale in Kolkata will perk up post RERA.”
–LNN (Liyans News Network)