OUTLOOK
OUTLOOK
FROM PLAYING
BADMINTON,
TO SKATING OR
JOGGING, THERE
ARE SO MANY REC-
REATIONAL ACTIVI-
TIES THAT YOU WILL
FEEL SPOILT OF
CHOICES AVAILABLE
AT THE CENTRAL
PARK RESORTS.
FROM PLAYING BADMINTON, CYCLING, TO SKATING
OR JOGGING, THERE ARE SO MANY RECREATIONAL
ACTIVITIES THAT YOU WILL FEEL SPOILT OF
40
CHROMOHOMES OCTOBER 2017
According to Venket Rao, RERA expert
& chief executive, Intygrat Business Advi-
sory, the legislative intent behind making
RERA happen has been to bring in a large
number of stuck projects in the ambit
of the reform. “If one tracks the course
of RERA there has been much activism
from the customers in regard to this
law. Sometime, during the course, RERA
was contemplated to be introduced for
new projects, however, ongoing projects
were introduced with the primary aim
to protect the interest of buyers even in
the current stuck projects,” informs Rao.
His study further reveals that almost
all states have excluded projects which
have obtained ‘occupancy certificate’
apart from those which have completion
certificate from the definition of ongoing
projects.
Most of the states have even excluded
project which have part completion or
part occupancy or even applied for cases,
from being an ongoing project. “States
such as Uttar Pradesh has set forth cer-
tain exemptions to the applicability of the
law to ongoing projects, some of which
are legally questionable, such as the use
of a ‘partial completion certificate’ issued
under the provisions of the Uttar Pradesh
Apartment Ownership Act, 2013. This is
‘dilution’ of the spirit of the law, some-
thing that other states are also trying to
do to protect the interests of developers,”
further adds Sandhir.
Furthermore, in perspective of Jaxay
Shah, president, CREDAI National, on-
going projects coming under the ambit
of RERA are more likely to get further
delayed which will cause despair
amongst the homebuyers who have
already paid for their dream homes. “A
constructive and concrete definition of
ongoing projects accounting the stakes
should be re-evaluated by states,” puts
forward Shah, adding “the authorities
which are responsible for seamlessly
conducting the process and giving ap-
proval should also be contained within
RERA to ensure unbiasedness and
transparency which is the prime objec-
tive of RERA.”
The developers were supposed to get
a clear 90-day window for registrations
commencing May 1, 2017 and ending July
31, 2017. Unfortunately, the state govern-
ments were not ready with the registra-
tion machinery on May 1, 2017. “Haryana
notified the rules for the act only on July
28, leaving developers with only three
days to register. UP asked developers to
register online but could operationalise
the website on July 26. Thankfully, UP has
now given a 15-day extension without
any penalty. Many states like Haryana and
Punjab are not releasing the final regis-
tration certificates yet because perhaps
they want to vet the individual applica-
tions,” informs Pankaj Bajaj, president,
CREDAI NCR.
It’s also been noticed that there is
absolutely no scope for correction once a
developer fills his registration and hence,
most of the developers waited till the end
moment to ensure that all the specifics
are met as per RERA. Also RERA’s restric-
tion on sale of any project without regis-
tration will adversely aff ect the business
cycle and can cripple the entire industry
which is concerning.
RERA is also not clear on how it plans
to regulate real estate agents. “While the
Act asks real estate agents to register
with the state real estate authority after
paying a certain fee, it does not really
regulate the agents. It does not bring
professional standards into the real
estate brokerage industry,” further points
out Sandhir.
To make the Act successful, industry
stakeholders think that all states should
maintain uniformity in implementation of
the rules that will bring in much needed
transparency and pave the way for imple-
mentation of standard practices across
the sector.
OCTOBER 2017 CHROMOHOMES
41