From Tuesday, RERA will begin receiving complaints against builders who delay handing over projects to homebuyers. Erring builders can be punished with a fine or imprisonment, or both.
Bought a house? Builder playing truant? You can now take the builder to RERA
Come Tuesday, aggrieved homebuyers will be able to register complaints against builders for not honouring builder-buyer agreements (BBAs). The office of the authority of Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act (RERA) for Gurgaon will start functioning out of the PWD resthouse from Tuesday.
Senior IAS officer of Haryana, Cadre Krishna Kumar Khandelwal, who was appointed the RERA chairperson on November 27 last year, took voluntary retirement on Sunday so he could assume charge of the RERA office, near the police commissioner’s office in Civil Lines.
“People can come and meet us starting Tuesday and submit complaints. We will hold a meeting of the authority on February 10 for formulation of regulations,” Khandelwal said.
Pradip Rahi, a homebuyer, said, “The RERA office is set to get many complaints, as many builders have failed to deliver on the commitments made in their BBAs.”
Under RERA, any aggrieved person can file a complaint with the authority for any violation of provisions under the Act. The complaint will be accompanied by a fee, paid through a demand draft or a banker’s cheque drawn on a scheduled bank in favour of Haryana Real Estate Regulatory Authority.
“After receiving complaints, the authority will send a notice to respondents and fix a date for hearing to adjudicate the case,” said a senior town and country planning official of the Haryana government, adding that 251 projects have been registered with RERA in Gurgaon till date.
As per RERA sections 59, 64, 66 and 68, the chairperson can impose a fine on the developer of up to 10 per cent of the cost of the entire project, or with imprisonment subject to the nature of violations.
President of DXP welfare association, Yashesh Yadav, said, “We hope the RERA chairperson will address our grievances and punish developers for failing to deliver.”
RERA, 2016, was notified by the government of India in March 2016. The government of Haryana notified the RERA rules on July 28, 2017, making it mandatory for builders to register themselves with RERA for their ongoing projects.
The Haryana government had granted its first licence to DLF Limited in 1981.
