Amend RERA Act to prevent exploitation: Mumbai Grahak Panchayat

Following a plea by home-buyers to amend RERA Act, Mumbai Grahak Panchayat has written to Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of State (Independent Charge) of Housing & Urban Affairs to bring ongoing projects that are without commencement certificate under RERA. The letter says that certain anomalies need to be removed immediately to protect the interest of lakhs of home buyers, several of who have paid builders an advance, yet no work has begun in the sites.

"We have received complaints from several home-buyers who have paid around 10%-80% of flat cost back in 2012-2013, and were anxiously waiting for these projects to be registered under Maha-RERA. However, they have been informed recently that these projects cannot be registered because the promoters have neither obtained commencement certificates nor sanctioned building plans from the Competent Authority as mentioned in 4(2) (c) & (d) of RERA," reads the letter.

The amendment will address the situation which is prevalent not only in Maharashtra but in almost all states of India. And if such anomalous situation continues to exist, a large number of on-going real estate projects are bound to remain outside the purview of RERA, thereby allowing further exploitation of the home-buyers.

The forum has suggested that such on-going projects should be granted ad-hoc registration with no permission to advertise, market, book or sell, till the promoter obtains the required permits.