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Nod for Bill to create real-estate watchdog
Aimed at protecting consumer interests
New Delhi, June 4:
The Cabinet on Tuesday approved the Real Estate Regulation and Development Bill that will enable the setting up of a regulator. Widely seen as a measure to protect buyers’ interests, the Bill will ensure speedy dispute resolution, and envisages imprisonment for realtors who lure consumers through misleading advertisements.
The Government intends to present the Bill during the monsoon session of Parliament in August.
Misleading ads
The Bill has been languishing since 2007 due to pressure from the real-estate lobby which has been opposing the proposed law.
Key aspects of the draft Bill include punishment for selling a project without registration and also putting out misleading advertisements. The proposed Real Estate Regulation may include imprisonment up to three years or penalty of up to 10 per cent of the estimated cost, or both.
The proposed Bill will not apply to commercial construction. It will mandate that private builders sell houses in residential projects on the basis of carpet area or built-up area, instead of the vague ‘super area’.
The proposed piece of legislation seeks to make it mandatory for a developer to maintain a separate bank account for every project to ensure that the money raised for one project is not diverted. The law suggests that the cost of construction for a particular project will have to be maintained as a separate account.
Statutory clearances
There is also a provision to make it mandatory for developers to launch projects only after getting all statutory clearances.
Under the new law, builders will be able to sell property only after getting all clearances.
Developers will be barred from collecting money from buyers before obtaining all the permits necessary to start construction on the project. The Bill also proposes that the buyer should have a right to get refund with interest, in case of delay.
Cabinet Approves Real Estate Bill
A Bill providing for setting up a regulator for the real estate sector and having provisions like a jail term of up to three years for developers who make offences like putting up misleading advertisements about projects repeatedly was approved by the government today.
The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill, approved by the cabinet, seeks to provide a uniform regulatory environment to the sector.
It also intends to make it mandatory for developers to launch projects only after acquiring all statutory clearances from relevant authorities.
Builders and developers who become repeat offenders may even face a jail term of up to three years.
The Bill makes it mandatory for builders to clarify the carpet area of the flat. This would be made uniform for the entire country. This rule would make the concept of super area - which is often used to mislead owners - virtually non-existent.
The Bill has provisions under which all relevant clearances for real estate projects would have to be submitted to the regulator and also displayed on a website before starting the construction, sources said.
The proposed legislation has tough provisions to deter builders from putting out misleading advertisements related to the projects carrying photographs of the actual site.
Failure to do so for the first time would attract penalty which may be up to 10 per cent of the project cost and a repeat offence could land the developer in jail.
The Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation is working on bringing all projects under a single-window clearance. While the Airports Authority of India and municipal bodies have come on board, there are some objections from the Environment Ministry which are being looked into.
Ministry sources said 22 states had given their approval to the Bill while five states wanted certain amendments. These changes have been incorporated in the Bill cleared by the Cabinet today, sources said. Chhattisgarh is the sole state to still oppose the Bill.
Builders and developers will have to get all clearances - from title deed to project cost - cleared before construction begins. FAR (Floor Area Ratio) will also have to be specified clearly by the builder.
While the Regulator in the states will be appointed by the state governments, in Delhi the Urban Development Ministry will appoint the regulator. DDA is likely to be made the regulator in Delhi, sources said.
The Regulator will also be the appellate authority in cases of dispute. This will save the owners the hassle of running around to different authorities for redressal.
The developers will also have to specify the common area in the society. The term "apartment" has been specified in the Bill and will include the space to be provided for a garage.
The Real Estate Regulatory Authority bill will go a long way in checking the huge inflow of black money into the realty sector.
Though there are no exact estimates, the realty sector is known to a big generator of black money in the country. The bill approved by the cabinet Tuesday has stringent clauses to help trail money laundering in the sector.
It not only makes it mandatory for real estate developers and property agents to get themselves registered with the regulator but also makes it mandatory for developers and agents to submit a record of their accounts to the regulator.
"The records of project account would help in trailing the money inflow into the sector. Till now investigating agencies used to face a tough time trailing black money in the absence of any record," said Ajay Maken, Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation minister.
Maken said this clause was incorporated in the bill following the advice of the finance ministry. "The department of Revenue wanted it to be incorporated," he added.
The bill, which was approved by the cabinet on Tuesday, will come into force after Parliament gives its green signal.
The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) is the biggest ‘landlord’ of the Capital, owning large swathes of land in a city where land is scarce. For most Delhiites, houses built and sold at affordable rates by the DDA are their only hope of owning a house in Delhi.
The dream of owning a DDA flat, however, could turn into a nightmare as allottees of the 2010 housing scheme of DDA have found out. Not only were the 16,000 odd buyers made to run from pillar to post to get possession of their flats after much delay, the flats they got were mostly incomplete and many complained of bad quality of construction.
Most residential complexes built by DDA as part of this scheme started receiving water and power connections only last month. DDA’s usual lackadaisical attitude, however, might change when the Real Estate Regulatory Authority Bill that was cleared by the cabinet on Tuesday comes into force after getting the Parliament’s nod.
The Bill has elaborately defined the term “promoter” to include not only private developers but also government agencies, which are into building and selling residential houses. This will automatically bring development agencies like DDA under the ambit of the legislation.
It will be mandatory for the promoter to register the housing project with the real estate regulator before it is launched. Mandatory public disclosure of all projects will include details like layout plan, carpet area and the number of the apartments booked, plan of development work, status of the statutory approvals, disclosure of proforma agreements, name and addresses of architect etc.
“This will go a long way in providing redressal to people who have bought such flats but were left unsatisfied with the construction quality as well as the facilities that have been provided,” said Ajay Maken, Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation minister.
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