‘New housing bill in favour of developers’

Housing experts are up in arms against the new Maharashtra Housing (Regulation & Development) Bill, 2012, as they claim it is a watered down version of the repealed Maharashtra Ownership of Flats Act (MOFA), 1963, and tilted in favour of developers.

Housing experts are up in arms against the new Maharashtra Housing (Regulation & Development) Bill, 2012, as they claim it is a watered down version of the repealed Maharashtra Ownership of Flats Act (MOFA), 1963, and tilted in favour of developers.

In a forum organised on Tuesday, advocate Vinod Sampat and Pankaj Kapoor, managing director of realty research firm Liases Foras, spoke on how the bill would affect the real estate sector.

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Calling it a ‘builder friendly bill’, Sampat said they would write to the government, asking them to make certain corrections while framing the rules.

The bill, which was passed by the state assembly on July 16, is aimed at increasing transparency and augmenting accountability in the real estate sector.

However, Sampat, city activists, housing societies and flat buyers claimed that not only was it poorly drafted, but also failed to maintain transparency.

According to activists, the new bill has eliminated several tough norms set in the MOFA. Anup Gupta, project management consultant, said, “The housing bill is haywire and there was no time limit mentioned for the builders to transfer the property to the homebuyers.”

The main contentions against the bill were the penalty levied on the flat buyers, provision where developers have a choice to return the deposit money, along with the interest to the buyer in case of failure to execute the project, etc.

Kapoor, however, said there were chances of some changes in the real estate market due to the regulatory bill. Regarding mandatory registration on receiving more than 20% of the value of flats, Kapoor said, “It will reduce investor participation and the flow of black money can increase.”