UP real estate regulator to act against unregistered housing projects
The Uttar Pradesh Real Estate Regulatory Authority (UP Rera)will also likely impose a penalty against those builders who did not register their housing projects with the Rera, according to rules. The authority’s rules state that individual builders need to get their respective realty projects registered with the Rera and obtain a registration number.
The Uttar Pradesh Real Estate Regulatory Authority (UP Rera) on Wednesday decided to address grievances of homebuyers who booked flats in housing projects which were not registered according to existing rules.
The authority will also likely impose a penalty against those builders who did not register their housing projects with the Rera, according to rules. The authority’s rules state that individual builders need to get their respective realty projects registered with the Rera and obtain a registration number.
“We were hearing cases of those realty projects which are registered with us, till date. However, now we have decided to hear cases of those homebuyers as well who booked flats in projects not registered by the builder as per rules,” Balvinder Kumar, member of UP Rera, said.
The authority has received a total of 554 complaints for around 100 housing projects, which are unregistered. These 100 projects are located in areas of Noida, Greater Noida and Ghaziabad.
“We are likely to impose a penalty against those builders who have not registered their projects with us, violating norms. The rules state that Rera can impose a penalty 10% of the total project cost. For example, if a housing project cost is ₹2,000 crore then the penalty against an unregistered project will be ₹200 crore,” Kumar said.
Apart from this, the authority decided that the secretary of Rera will be available for two days – Wednesday and Friday – in the Greater Noida office to look into cases of unregistered projects.
“One bench will sit in Greater Noida for four days – from Monday to Thursday – instead of three days a week previously, on order to resolve more cases. One bench will sit for three days instead of the earlier two days-a-week schedule. Later on, both the benches will sit for four days per week at the Greater Noida office,” Kumar said.
The decision was taken during a meeting held Wednesday at the authority’s Greater Noida office.
The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016, was passed with the aim of protecting interests of homebuyers and boosting investments in the real estate sector.
The Act came into force on May 1, 2016. The Uttar Pradesh housing and urban planning department had, on October 27, 2016, notified the UP Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Rules, 2016, to make way for the formation of Rera.