All you need to know about RERA and its progress

As many as 25 states have notified the RERA rules so far.

“Some state governments are still slow on the rules. Within a year of passage of RERA, out of 29 states and union territories, 25 have notified the rules. RERA is applicable to 35 states, except Jammu and Kashmir. The two states that have signed up include Telangana and Himachal Pradesh. Four states are still left,” said Rajiv Ranjan Mishra, additional secretary, ministry of housing and urban affairs.

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He was speaking at the Naredco 14th National Convention during a session on RERA 2016 – Transforming the Indian Real Estate Landscape.

States that are yet to notify rules

Four states that are yet to notify the rules include Goa, Kerala, Tripura and West Bengal. Goa has extended the deadline to October for ongoing projects to register with RERA.

Six states and union territories that have constitutional issues as land in these states belong to the community or autonomous councils include Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim.

“Kerala has notified some rules in their Act and are in the final stages of notifying. Tripura will notify rules within a week,” he said, adding“We will also be taking up the issue with the six states in the North East.”

As for real estate authorities, six states have so far established a permanent real estate regulatory authority and 18 interim regulators have started discharging their work, he said.

In Gujarat, an appellate tribunal has been set up. Nine states and union territories have appointed interim appellate tribunal under the Real Estate Act.

“In some states where there is a delay in setting up a permanent authority, we have been after them. We have also been requesting interim regulators to start the registration process and it is happening,” he said.

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Total projects registered so far across India

Mishra said that 20,000 ongoing real estate projects have been registered so far. “This is not a small number in this short time,” he said and advised the developers that Rera registered projects should from now on be used as a marketing tool to promote projects. “RERA registered projects have a better chance of attracting buyers to invest in a project.”

In Mumbai 11,000 projects have been registered so far with the Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority. Of these, around 9,000 have been issued RERA certificates.

Big disappointment - not enough websites up

Consumers in states like Gurgaon still have nowhere to check the status of ongoing projects.

“As far as websites are concerned, every regulator is expected to have an online portal within one year of the notification. In Chennai, the offline process has started and the state will be launching its website soon,” Mishra said.

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States taking local decisions

Some states have taken local decisions to facilitate the registration process. “RERA is seen as improving the governance of the sector, doing the ease of business. Though there are challenges, states are facilitating, trying to come up with practical solutions,” Mishra said.

In Madhya Pradesh, some rules have been improved upon. “Both filing and disposal of complaints in the state is online. We have received over 300 complaints online and instead of having regular face to face hearings wherein the parties meet to file replies and counter replies, the entire process is now online. So far 300 complaints have been filed and we have heard at least 100 cases so far and disposed of 18 complaints to benefit both builders and buyers,” said Anthony De Sa, chairman RERA and former chief secretary, Madhya Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh Real Estate Regulatory Authority.

The central Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act (RERA) came into effect on May 1, 2017, exactly a year after it was passed by Parliament. As per the Act, developers, projects and agents had till July 31 to mandatorily register their projects with the Real Estate Regulatory Authority. Any unregistered project would be deemed to be unauthorised by the regulator.

Under RERA each state and UT will have its own Regulatory Authority (RA) which will frame regulations and rules according to the Act. But not all states have a real estate authority in place yet and some with one have diluted the original provisions as per the Central Act.

RERA covers both new project launches and on-going projects where the completion/occupation certificate has not been received.

According to the provisions of the Act, for ongoing projects which don’t have a completion certificate issued, developers have to make an application to the authority for registration of projects within a period of three months from the date of commencement of this Act which was May 1.

Under RERA, a developer cannot sell residential or commercial units in a project, ongoing or new, unless those are registered with the regulatory authorities.

Home buyers say they are where they began

Most states have diluted rules to favour developers. Most states have moved away from the Centre’s definition of ongoing projects and excluded projects for which lease deeds of either 50 percent or 60 per cent of the apartments have been executed or for which partial completion or occupation certificates have been obtained by the developer. This leaves little hope for homebuyers stuck with old unfinished projects.

Vandana.ramnani@nw18.com