Quarterly construction-quality audits must precede occupation certificate: experts

In January, the back portion of five premium villas located near Golf Course Extension Road gave way while construction on a commercial project by another builder was underway across the boundary wall of the complex.

“We started noticing cracks on the garden walls last November and informed the builder, but no action was taken. In January, the rear wall of five villas dropped four levels after digging work for the commercial project located across the boundary wall started. The backyard today hangs like a cliff. No FIR has been filed till date,” one of the residents told Moneycontrol.

There were a series of building collapses in other parts of the Delhi-National Capital Region — Greater Noida and Ghaziabad — a few years ago that were blamed on poor construction quality and weak foundations.

In October 2021, a multi-storeyed building in Shimla collapsed due to a landslide triggered by rains. The incident took place at Ghoda Chowki near the Hali Palace.

In 2020, Tareq Garden, a five-storeyed building in Mahad town, around 170 km from Mumbai, collapsed killing more than 15 people.

Whose fault is it anyway?

Structural experts say that while the regulatory mechanism, rules and regulations are all in place, it is the failure to enforce building bylaws and the National Building Code of India that is behind such tragedies. Much of this is tied to the rampant corruption in the system.

There are no random quality checks. Besides, developers have to submit structural safety documents only at the time of procuring occupation certificates.

“Structural checks should be a quarterly exercise and all the findings/reports should be uploaded on the authority’s website,” says a structural expert.

“The collapse may be a warning to builders who compromise on material and quality to increase profits ... for an extra buck at the expense of peoples’ lives,” said Gautam Bhatia, an architect.

Explaining the procedure, AK Jain, former planning commissioner at the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), told Moneycontrol that architects and engineers involved in a real estate project have to submit an affidavit that the building has been built according to standards, that approved materials have been used, and that the structural design is safe. The responsibility for any disaster lies with the developer or the person signing the affidavit.

The ground reality is that the engineers who sign the affidavit are not qualified, and many of them may be retired assistant engineers. Ideally, they should be registered with a council of engineers to be qualified to sign the affidavit.

Yet another lacunae is that the rules and regulations provide for sample checks of 10 percent of a building. The panel of consultants maintained by developers are generally expected to verify and certify that the building has been made according to structural norms, bylaws, specifications for a sample that generally does not go beyond 10 percent of the project, he explains.

Jain suggests that an inter-departmental committee comprising experts from academia, the private sector, government sector, homebuyers, judiciary, engineers etc be set up. The committee should have the power to issue completion certificates as also to issue penalties for such incidents.

Ramesh Menon of Certes Realty is of the opinion that ultimately, it is the homebuyer who gets a substandard home while everybody else involved in the construction process is derisked and takes on zero responsibility.

“Currently, the focus seems to be on self-certification. Instead there should be checks at every stage of construction which should be uploaded on the authority’s website,” says Menon.

Abhay Gupta, structural engineer and owner of Skeleton Consultants Private Limited, explains that prior to obtaining an occupation certificate (OC), a developer is expected to submit two forms along with the OC application. These bear the signatures of the promoter, architect, proof consultant and engineer who supervised construction. The structural engineer signs off the form that specifies the codes that have been adhered to while designing the building.

Ideally, a project management consultant should certify the quality of the building and construction at every stage, says Gupta. The quality of the work should be regularly monitored and test reports should be attached. The scope of RERA should include quality monitoring and materials used for construction, advises Gupta, adding that in Greater Noida, approval has to be obtained from IIT and in Mumbai, it is the high-rise committee that approves every building design.

A builder who did not wish to be named told Moneycontrol that many projects have been sanctioned under the Building Code of 2005. “All these projects have witnessed no construction activity since 2012 and most of their building plans have elapsed. Builders who take over these stuck/abandoned projects have to first make these buildings compliant with the new Building Code of 2016 when they file for an occupation certificate.”

Also, developers should not be made to certify quality of construction only at the time of applying for an occupation certificate. “Certification should be done at regular intervals. It should be a continuous process. These certificates can be uploaded online every three months. In addition, the authorities should maintain a panel of structural engineers. Builders can approach them to get the certification done. There should also be a mechanism to rate structural engineers,” he adds.

What needs to be done?

Experts say that the regulatory framework is in place. The RERA Act states: “In case any structural defect or any other defect in workmanship, quality or provision of services or any other obligations of the promoter as per the agreement for sale relating to such development is brought to the notice of the promoter within a period of five years by the allottee from the date of handing over possession, it shall be the duty of the promoter to rectify such defects without further charge, within thirty days, and in the event of promoter's failure to rectify such defects within such time, the aggrieved allottees shall be entitled to receive appropriate compensation in the manner as provided under this Act.”

“For incidents such as a roof collapse incident, wherein there is loss of life, authorities may consider expanding the scope of RERA provisions to include stringent penalties for negligence. Similarly, the builder may be made responsible if it is found that construction norms do not adhere to standard requirements,” says Aditya Khadria, Partner, Economic Laws Practice.

Another way of dealing with these situations is to make insurance of buildings mandatory. It should be mandatory for a builder to maintain an insurance cover for the building until the conveyance deed is executed in favour of the buyers’ association, after which the buyers’ association would have to bear the cost.

Insurance regulator IRDA may make it compulsory for insurance companies to make inspections and quality checks compulsory during the construction stage as well as after residents start residing in a project.

Aditya Parolia of PSP Legal points out that while car showrooms allow buyers to test-drive a car before purchase, a prospective buyer is not permitted to inspect the flat s/he intends to buy. A sample flat or a showcase flat is all that is available for preview. Also, buyers are not permitted to carry out third-party audits, as was the case with the Chintels Paradiso project in Gurgaon. This, he says, should be allowed.