The Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Development is mulling a proposal to appoint single regulator for both Delhi and Chandigarh under new Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) Act to look into grievances of home buyers from unscrupulous builders. The proposal of single regulator will be on the lines of State Election Commission which conducts municipal polls in Delhi and Chandigarh. The proposal has been sent to Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation by Chandigarh Administration.
The Real Estate Act came into force on May 1 to protect homebuyers from unscrupulous developers. As per the Act, the States have to set up RERA and the Act makes it mandatory for builders to register with RERA before launching or even advertising their project.
Sources said that home buyers of Chandigarh will have to wait as Delhi Government is yet to appoint the regulator. The Housing Ministry has assigned the task to lieutenant Governor of Delhi to appoint regulator and provide logistic support to them.
“The Housing Ministry has no objections to Chandigarh Administration proposal if lieutenant Governor of Delhi agrees,” sources said. The issue has been discussed at a recent meeting.
According to officials, Chandigarh Administrator has appointed regulator on temporary basis to look into the grievances of home buyers. But it said that single regulator should be appointed for Delhi and Chandigarh in the lines of State Election Commission as both are Union Territories.
RERA seeks to address issues like delays, price, quality of construction, title and other changes. “Delays in projects are the biggest issue faced by buyers. The reasons are many and the impact is huge. Since the last 10 years, many projects have seen delays of up to seven years. Projects launched after the turn of this decade have faced delays as well. Some have run into obstacles even before a brick was laid. The reasons include diversion of funds to other projects, changes in regulations by authorities, the Environment Ministry, national green tribunal etc and other bodies like those involved in infrastructure development and governing transport,” said officials.
In many places, land acquisition becomes an issue. Errant builders often sell projects to investors without the approval of plans, unauthorised increase in FAR, bad quality of construction, projects stuck in litigation etc. Interestingly, only two States have appointed regulator under RERA till date.
When asked, a senior officer of Housing Ministry said that the States and UTs have three months to appoint regulators under RERA.