Status as on 26/11/2019

INTRODUCTION

That the Real Estate Regulation and Development Act was brought in the country on 5^th May, 2016 after a decade of real estate being tormented at the hands of the powerful builders. The Act was brought in to bring transparency, efficiency and to protect the interest of homebuyers. Now, the RERA Act made it mandatory for all the ongoing and new projects to register with respective RERA Authorities under the ambit of Section-3 and in case of non-registration they will attract penalties under Section-59 of the Act.

So, far many builders have registered their real estate projects with RERA Authorities but they still fail to abide by the quarterly compliances as mandated under the Act and Rules. Now, as homebuyer you may feel what implications does that have on you in terms of your grievance or complaint filling.

NON-REGISTRATION AND COMPLAINT FILLING

Now, the most common question and confusion every aggrieved homebuyer has is in terms of complaint filling against a non-registered project. As a naïve or laymen you may feel that there is connect in complaint filing and RERA Project registration under Section-3 but there is no such thing. RERA Authorities under the Act have dual role which are as follows:

1. One is that of Regulator or eye keeper on the real Estate Sector. This is so to maintain accountability and to keep check on the builders so that money paid by the homebuyers isn’t misused. This is done by them by the virtue of Section-3 of the Act wherein registration for any new or ongoing project is mandatory.
2. Second is that of judicial body wherein they do justice in terms of issues faced by the buyers. This role is governed by Section-31 of the Act wherein it is very clearly mentioned that “Any aggrieved person may file a complaint with the Authority……………….” It nowhere mentions that the complaint has to be against a registered project. This confusion has been cleared by many RERA Authorities also in many adjudicated cases. Homebuyers can approach RERA Authorities for structural defect up to five years which itself showcases that how complaint filling under Section-31 and Project Registration under Section-3 have no nexus as such.

CONCLUSION

So, this is misconceived notion among buyers and even builders that a complaint can only be filed against a registered project. The law under its ambit is very specific and it nowhere mentions a co-relation between the both. Many RERA Authorities have even passed landmark judgments clarifying this point of law for both buyers and builders that RERA Registration and complaint filling has nothing to do with each other and an aggrieved homebuyer can file complaint against any builder before the appropriate RERA Authority. Furthermore, as a buyer if you aware that a project should be registered then you can move a plain application to that effect before the RERA Authority and they shall take a suomoto cognizance over the same. Thus, don’t keep waiting in such notion go and get your problems adjudicated before the appropriate RERA Authorities.

Disclaimer – The above article is based on the personal interpretation of related laws and circumstances of the writer which may change from person to person. The readers are expected to take expert advice before relying upon the said article. For any clarifications, you can read to the author at support@centrik.in.

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