Mumbai: The Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) also has provisions for safeguarding the allottees and buyers while being strict on promoters and agents, said activists who participated in a talk conducted in the city on Friday. The seminar based on filing a complaint with RERA was conducted by a city Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO).
The topic of the seminar was on ‘How to file complaints and get justice using the fast reconciliation for people.’ The seminar was conducted by NGO Money Life Foundation. During the workshop, a city based Right To Information said that RERA has several provisions even for the allottees along with builders or promoter. “RERA is quite strict on promoters and agents and had mandatory compliance provisions,” said Sulaiman Bhimani, an RTI activist and Founder-President of Citizens Justice Forum.
Another RERA expert also said the Central government had provided an alternate dispute redress mechanism, which is turning out to be quite useful for buyers. Bhimani also added, the promoter or builder are not allowed to advertise, book or sell any plot without registering the project with RERA.
“Validity of registration remains till the date of completion as stated by the promoter. However, if the promoter tries to sell flats without registering the project with RERA, he is levied a penalty of more than 10 percent of the estimated cost of the project,” said Bhimani. Experts also said there were certain cases where the promoter is not required to register his project with RERA. “If area of the land to be developed is lower than 500 square meters, or number of apartments are less than eight, then the promoter is not required to register the project with RERA,” added Bhimani.
RERA provides a relief for buyers as there are provision like Section 12 which deals with claiming loss sustained due to incorrect statement.
