UP Apartment Act amendments: Pro-builder, not pro-flat owners
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UP Apartment Act amendments: Pro-builder, not pro-flat owners

Alok Kumar, patron of FedAOA, said it pointed to the nexus between politicians and real estate developers.

UP Apartment Act amendments: Pro-builder, not pro-flat owners

AOAs and their apex bodies have not taken the new amendments to the UP Apartment Act, 2010, well. Members of Federation of AOAs (FedAOA), Ghaziabad, said some of the amendments had snatched the rights from the hands of apartment owners and further empowered builders.

Here are the three amendments that have stripped away the powers of homebuyers and flat owners:

It is now easier for the builder to make changes to approved plans

Apartment owners told City Spidey that the recent amendments took away their power to hold the builder responsible for some of its actions, such as making changes in the society’s approved building plans. AOA members from across Ghaziabad said they already had cases pending against the builder with Allahabad High Court for making unapproved changes in the building plans for various projects.

“These builders often flout the approved plans and build residential towers and commercial complexes in areas designated as open spaces," said Pooja Shrivastava, a resident of Crossings Republik in Ghaziabad. "While earlier they had to get permissions from flat owners, the project architect, the project engineer and the sanctioning authority, now they just have to get an approval from the development authority for making changes, so things have got much easier for the builders.”

The amendment has also omitted the flat owner's say and laid the onus on the development authority to permit changes.

The builder can skip the Deed of Declaration if the project has commenced before the new amendment

Section 12 of the Act, which deals with the Deed of Declaration (DoD) of a society, allows builders to not submit the declaration for buildings constructed before the commencement of the new amended Act of 2016. The DoD serves as the original blueprint of a society, which contains all the information of a flat, thereby ratifying the builder's work.

“This particular amendment has taken away an important right of the residents — the right that so many residents have been fighting for for several years now," said DK Maurya, president of FedAOA. "The DoD is an important document and several societies have been affected by its absence. It has defeated all those homebuyers by denying it in one go,” said DK Maurya, president of FedAoA.

The third major change to the Apartment Act has left apartment owners confused and wondering what to do.

It will now take longer to form a resident body (AOA)

According to the new amendment, it will be the joint responsibility of the builder and the apartment owners to form an association. The builder will get the association registered when either of the following, whichever is more, is reached:

i) When the number of apartments necessary to form an association is handed over to owners.

or 

ii) When 60 per cent of apartments — either by sale or transfer of possession — has been occupied, given the construction of the building is complete, and all infrastructure services and completion certificate in place.

The previous 33 per cent has been almost doubled, which means forming an association will take more time.

Speaking to City Spidey, Alok Kumar, the patron of FedAOA, said the new amendment, instead of being pro-people had become pro-developer, which also pointed to the nexus between politicians and real estate developers. Kumar further expressed that once an Act was formed, it became difficult to challenge it. On being asked whether FedAOA would legally challenge the amendment, Kumar said a meeting with the legal advisors of the federation would be held to decide the course of action.