Homebuyers unhappy, want states to scrap project deadline extension

In May, the Supreme Court had said that WBHIRA creates a parallel regime and is in direct conflict with the Centre’s Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act (RERA). The state law has encroached upon the domain of the Parliament and hence is unconstitutional, the verdict said. (Representative image)

A homebuyers’ body has demanded that RERA authorities in Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka roll back their decisions to give another extension for completing housing projects as these would lead to delays of more than a year.

In a letter to the housing ministry, the Forum For People's Collective Efforts said the Real Estate Regulatory Authorities (RERAs) said the decision taken in the garb of Covid-19 second wave was reckless and in blatant disregard of homebuyers rights.

"Also, it must be clarified that those RERA Authorities who have already extended timeline must withdraw such notification and cancel any such timeline extension already given under the notification," the letter addressed to housing secretary Durga Shankar Mishra said.

The housing ministry in 2020 “under the pretext of Covid-19 pandemic provided a suo motu extension (zero period) of six months to real estate projects across the country”, with an option for a further extension of three months given to State RERA authorities, the letter said. This was done with the sole purpose of giving relief to builders at a huge cost to homebuyers.

In August, Maharashtra and Karnataka RERAs extended timelines by six months and UP by nine months.

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“The repercussion of such extensions would have to be necessarily and directly faced by homebuyers whose scheduled handover will now get delayed for more than a year no,w assuming extended timeline is honoured, which also is certainly a very high hope considering the reputation of builders in our country,” the letter said.

The move was aimed at scuttling homebuyers' rights enshrined under RERA to get their homes on time, the letter, reviewed by Moneycontrol, said.

Also read: What RERA timeline extension means for homebuyers, real estate developers

The explicit purpose of the government bringing in a law in 2017 to set up Real Estate Regulatory Authorities across the country was to regulate the sector as well as to protect the rights of homebuyers.

Homebuyers would have to continue paying EMI and rent for extended periods despite facing acute hardship due to job losses and pay cuts, the letter, which as reviewed by Moneycontrol, said.

“Such extension is bound to create havoc and unimaginable financial stress on the homebuyers,” form’s head Abhay Upadhyay said in the letter.

Also read: Seeking indiscriminate extension of project timelines from RERA is not the builders’ birthright: homebuyers' body

It pointed out that the ministry’s advisory granting extension to RERA timelines in 2020, “obviously under pressure from builders, has opened floodgates of extension. RERA authorities were giving blanket extensions even when there was no stoppage of work or complete lockdown, it said.

The second wave lasted for merely two-three months but the extensions had been granted for six to nine months.  “It is also beyond our understanding that how such decisions can be taken by RERA authorities which is one-sided, detrimental to one stakeholder, arbitrary and without any logical or legal basis,” the letter said.

FPCE has demanded that the Centre should intervene in this matter and direct the three states to roll back their decisions.