Aalya Hussain, a 5th-year Law Student specializing in Corporate Law at the School of law, Lovely Professional University has written this blog explaining “Challenges during registration under RERA”
Introduction
One of a person’s basic needs is a place to call home. Everyone wants their own home, but buying one requires a sizable investment. In addition, one needs to establish a relationship with the builders to construct a home and take ownership of it. They have their guidelines, which makes it even more difficult for the typical person. Before the Real Estate Regulating Act (RERA) went into effect in 2016, it was difficult to maintain checks and balances in the real estate industry because the home-buying process was neither transparent nor consistent. There was also a significant development delay. However, now that RERA has been implemented, the process is much more streamlined and transparent.
The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, of 2016, was passed by the Indian parliament with the goal of protecting homebuyers and promoting investment in the real estate sector. Even though the Act’s provisions have been very helpful to us, the implementation process doesn’t seem to be as straightforward. As registering a project under RERA is still very challenging today.
Challenges encountered during project registration under RERA
Logging in to a web portal
The builder or developer must register any new project with the state’s real estate regulatory body. Similar to real estate developers, the issue arises when someone who is not accustomed to the electronic world finds it extremely difficult to switch from an offline platform to an online platform. Due to their inability to access the website, they had trouble registering on the online portal. They were given until July 31 to register the project, and they had to do so. The website’s navigation was extremely challenging and not at all user-friendly, making it impossible to avoid making mistakes. Moreover, doing things incorrectly necessitates starting over, which takes a lot of time and delays the work. Therefore, a mass audience needs to be educated on how to access the portal.
Including coworkers in business
Since RERA is a novel idea, it is important to educate the public about its provisions and requirements. However, doing so without alienating any segments of the population is a challenging task. Check low-level management for incorrect customer communication, even if top-level management is correct. Many developers and builders experience difficulties because they are not well versed with the Act, and they do so by educating their customers about it, which is where the problem arises.
Lack of synchronization between government agencies
In common parlance, it is always said that anything involving the government takes longer than usual. Whenever the government is involved, everything takes longer. This is also true for the RERA: the builder is required to complete the project by a certain date, but due to flaws in the government system, the work frequently goes unfinished. Additionally, entertaining eight government departments before starting the project is quite challenging. As this process takes a lot of time and energy.
Lack of coordination led builders to be unaware of the need to file an occupation certificate. In the end, there are several delays brought on by the length of time required to obtain authority approval and clearance.
Marketing ongoing projects and multiple registrations
Another major issue with the Act’s provisions is how one can advertise their ongoing work. The Act clearly states that the developer must register his project within 90 days, so the answer is yes, one may market his current project. But the Act does not specify any conditions under which one may not sell or advertise the product. Selling or advertising project is prohibited as the builder seeks registration.
For instance, the developer may not promote the clubhouse in the first phase of a township’s construction if the clubhouse will be handed over in the third phase. Builders are only permitted to advertise projects that will be turned over to buyers. Developers can register all of their projects if the center expands the guidelines and the state governments make their portals easier to use. If the government’s negligence caused the delay, the developer shouldn’t be held accountable.
Complaint management
Every field must have someone who will listen to their problems and offer a solution for the challenges that they are facing to be resolved as soon as possible. If a person goes to the store to ask for assistance because he is having trouble using the laptop he just bought but is not given a solution, he may lose faith in the store’s and the shopkeeper’s effectiveness.
The real estate sector, like other industries, depends on the trust of its stakeholders to remain operational. Hence, developers must focus their efforts on completing the project and resolving client issues as soon as possible. Before the passage of this Act, there was no recourse; however, authorities are now ensuring timely project delivery. However, there is still no complaint mechanism in place should the buyer engage in fraud or other careless behavior.
Both parties should put forth the effort, and it should be ensured that no frivolous or pointless complaints are made by customers. That there is no bias in how the authorities handle complaints. It is also necessary to punish equally important authorities in addition to builders for not doing their jobs, rather than just punishing builders for not doing theirs.
Need of approvals
Obtaining approval and clearances from various stages and at various points in time has evolved into one of the major issues and challenges for developers, necessitating the need for a single-window clearance system where everything is available on a single platform. As a result, the developers are burdened with unnecessary work, and the cost of the project rises from passing from one person to another. If this were to be done, housing policies would be a great success because the work would be completed very efficiently and smoothly, and the real estate sector would prosper if this were to be taken into account.
Issue with compliance
The RERA’s provisions are very challenging to put into practice; developers started registering their projects in July, but there is no appropriate authority or a way to independently verify the claimed documents. The aforementioned documents have only been completed; no verification has been carried out. To ensure the timely delivery of the real estate project, RERA was put into effect. As a result, a provision should be made to monitor RERA’s implementation process.
Recommendations for action
- The online portal’s registration process should be made simple to use.
- Swiftly resolving the complaint process.
- The use of a single window clearance system is recommended.
- Developers, regulators, and customers ought to be punished for performing unscrupulous acts.
- Builders must inform the public about transactions and have the advantage of the opportunity.
- Even the authorities should face penalties for delaying the granting of clearances and approvals.
- Implementing the provisions calls for a strong commitment from both the central and state governments.
- Rigorous controls should be in place. Convenient and quick approval processes should be implemented.
- Rules and regulations shouldn’t be constantly changed. If the government’s negligence caused the delay, the developer shouldn’t be held accountable.
- The laws governing land rights at the state and federal levels should be identical.
- Ensure that corrupt behavior on the part of politicians, developers, promoters, builders, and government officials is kept under control.
Conclusion
To ensure transparency and fairness in the real estate industry, to end corrupt developer practices, and to also protect buyers and consumers from being taken advantage of by dishonest developers, the real estate sector has been regulated or put into force. It has been able to uphold the Act’s requirements to a certain extent. The buyers were typically not given the keys right away. Instead, they had to wait a long time before receiving ownership of their homes.
As a result, the Act has greatly benefited consumers. However, for the law to be effective, there are still problems that must be resolved, such as complaint management, the requirement for approvals, compliance issues, a lack of synchronization between the developer and the government agency, and registering on an online portal. There is still a great deal of room for improvement in the Act, and there should also be a system where one can determine whether a developer complies with the law. There are numerous obstacles in the way of the RERA Act’s proper implementation, even though it has provisions for real estate (regulation and development sectors).
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