In a major development, a forum representing homebuyers has stated that the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016, has not been able to achieve its objectives so far and asked the Union Consumer Affairs Ministry to issue real estate sector-specific guidelines to safeguard consumers.
In a letter to the Consumer Affairs Secretary Nidhi Khare earlier this month, the Forum for People’s Collective Efforts (FPCE) has sought Ministry’s intervention, given that as per government’s own reply to Lok Sabha on August 7, around 50,000 complaints pertaining to real estate were pending with consumer forums as on July 31.
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The forum noted that though RERA is meant to regulate the sector, it was “sorry to say that RERA has in the last seven years, since it became fully functional, not been able to achieve its desired objectives”. The forum has also decided to approach the Consumer Affairs Ministry as many consumers were approaching consumer forums, rather than the RERA in their states, seeking redressal of their complaints.
“It is necessary on the part of the Consumer Affairs Ministry to protect the interest of the consumers as their life savings is at stake which is much higher than the consumers of any other sector,” an official from the forum said.
He added that though Section 71 of the RERA Act gives consumers the option to withdraw pending complaints from consumer forums and then approach RERA, but many have chosen not to. “This itself is testimony of the fact that RERA has not been able to achieve its desired objectives. It’s high time that the Consumer Affairs Ministry intervenes by coming out with sector specific guidelines to protect interest of consumers of real estate sector as malpractices prevalent in the sector are in blatant violation of Consumer Protection Act, 2019,” the official added.
