Join Hands - Buyers of India

The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 (RERA), a landmark legislation, has immense potential to infuse accountability in a sector that has hitherto been unregulated. It could bring about a paradigm shift in the outlook of various stakeholders towards the sector, due to emphasis on transparency, reliability, professionalism, and timely delivery.

But, the desired objectives of the legislation can only be forthcoming, if the fundamentals that have plagued the sector for decades are addressed. Primary amongst them being expediting completion of ongoing projects and holding the developers accountable for the lapse.

RERA is a phenomenal effort in a federal set-up, the success of which depends both on the centre and the states. RERA envisages subordinate Rules to be notified by the state governments. However, in the process rather than sticking to the provisions under it and adhering to its avowed principles, many states have diluted the rules to fav our the developers. Some have even, suo-motu, extended the deadline for implementation, in complete disregard to propriety, adding to the woes of buyers. A few other states have imposed token penalties for non-registration on developers, making a mockery of the provisions of RERA.

RERA was always intended to ensure accountability of builders towards ongoing projects, to ensure its timely completion. It aimed to provide buyers who have been waiting for years having paid-out their life’s savings, getting possession of their dream house. In that sense, the current atmosphere is a moment of churning that would ensure that the sector is purged of all the evil plaguing it for long. If the rules are diluted to oust ongoing projects from the purview of RERA, it is a gross violation of the intent behind the making of RERA.

What must the buyers do in such a scenario? Are we to sit by the side-lines and brood of administrative and political apathy heaped on buyers? Are we g oing to allow the nexus that has cost us our years of mental peace and happiness, continue unabated? Will this bode well for the sector as a whole, for which RERA was thought to be a game-changer?

These are the questions for which we need to find solutions. It is important to sensitize the powers that home buyers cannot be taken for granted. We need to ensure that rules by states, which have been diluted to favour builders, needs to be reversed and re-notified on the lines of those by the centre for Union Territories. It is a tall task, but certainly not impossible. We the home buyers need to join hands, the way we did for the passage of the Act in Parliament, and now to ensure it is implemented in letter and spirit.

In the midst of the difficulties being faced by buyers of ongoing projects, another monster has cropped up, threatening to gobble up our live savings. The ongoing insolvency proceeding against Jaypee Infratech is a case in point. The Insolvency and Bankrup tcy Code, 2016, has now become another tool in the hands of defaulting builders to escape the responsibility of project completion. The law empowers them to initiate insolvency on their own volition when their projects are in the red. The ultimate sufferer, the buyer, who is categorized as an unsecured creditor under the Code, is the last in the list to receive refund in case of liquidation.

Buyers provide the seed capital, the operational credit as against the promise of being given a house in the years ahead. However, are prioritized last and that needs to change. The Code needs to be amended, albeit through an ordinance, to make the home buyers the primary secured creditors. This again will not happen without the cumulative effort of all of us.

The home buyers are staring at two major challenges, as outlined above, and need to join hands, to ensure their life’s savings do not become victim to perverse policies and laws.

Thanks ET