The National Housing Bank (NHB) has launched Grievance Registration and Information Database System (GRIDS) for online registration and tracking of complaints against housing finance companies or the apex housing finance bank itself.
The new facility is in addition to the existing arrangements in which complaints can be submitted either manually or emailed to the bank and provides “a simple, speedy, and cost-effective mechanism to the aggrieved parties” who may be customers of the NHB or housing finance companies (HFCs), said a posting on the NHB website.
It went on to say that the new facility, in no way, substituted the existing judicial or quasi-judicial fora available to the aggrieved person to get the grievance adjudicated or redressed.
The complainant was at liberty to approach the available forum at any stage, including during the pendency of the complaint, and if the complaint had not been addressed adequately.
Transparency
GRIDS brings in transparency in the grievance redressal mechanism and is designed for online updating of responses by the NHB or the housing finance company.
The grievance redressal mechanism has been set up by the NHB in its role as the housing finance regulator. The National Housing Bank, set up by the NHB Act, 1987, has been mandated to operate as the principal agency to promote and support housing finance institutions.
The NHB has declared that “the grievance redressal mechanism of an organisation is the gauge to measure its efficiency and effectiveness as it provides important feedback on the working of the organisation and the entities regulated by it.”
The apex housing bank also has an Executive Director, who acts as the Chief Grievance Redressal Officer through its Grievance Redressal Cell.
Registration cancelled Meanwhile, the NHB has announced that it has cancelled the Certificate of Registration of Habitat Housing Finance Ltd., based in New Delhi.
A public notice issued by the NHB said that exercising powers conferred on it under the National Housing Bank Act, 1987, it had cancelled the registration of the said entity and that the company could not transact housing finance business hereafter.