Delay in implementing the agreement of sale for RERA

BENGALURU: Ever since the Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) Act had been implemented in the state in July 2017, questions have been raised over its effectiveness. It took nearly two years for the state government to have a permanent authority by appointing MR Kamble, a retired IAS officer, as the chairman of RERA Karnataka in March 2019.

In a recent interview with the media, Kamble had shared his visions and ideas about RERA-K.

When asked about the general perception that RERA-K is partial towards builders at the cost of homebuyers.

He said that, "We admit to teething troubles, as the concept of RERA is something new to Indian society as well as the administrative system. But regulation of real the estate sector is improving and homebuyers are benefiting."

When questioned about the measures being considered to act more stringently against the erring builders?

He replied by saying, "The Act allows the authority to prosecute non-compliant builders with our orders and we will start prosecuting the defaulters. We will also set up a panel of chartered accountants to scrutinise quarterly updates filed by builders and empanelled engineers will physically verify the projects. We are planning to have a task force to take action after conducting spot visits."

When asked about the registration of the projects that, there are over 20,000 projects in Karnataka, but only 3,000 are registered with RERA-K.

"There are technical glitches on our web portal where online registration is being done. We are getting a permanent team from the National Informatics Centre (NIC) to manage and maintain the portal. We have a team to monitor the advertisements of projects to know whether they are registered or not. We will ask the plan- sanctioning authorities like BBMP and BDA to share information as soon as they approve project plans, so that we can keep a tab on new projects. We hope to bring all projects under the ambit of RERA soon," he said.

When asked about the reason for delay to implement the agreement of sale, which is the vital part of RERA.

"True. The agreement of sale is the most important aspect of RERA as it ensures protection of consumer rights of buyers, as builders are mandated to disclose carpet area and built-up area separately in the document and charge only for the built-up area. While discussions are on to adopt the format prescribed by the Centre for the agreement of sale or to come up with the state's own format, the state government is yet to take a call," he replied.