A little over a year after the Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) Act, 2016 came into effect in the State last year, RERA Karnataka has been hit by unfavourable reviews from sections of homebuyers who took to the authority to resolve their complaints.
Accusations of orders being “toothless”, procedural delays, and of builders taking the authority lightly or being let off with “lenient” directions are being hurled by complainants, some of whom have chosen to skip approaching the authority for redressal. Instead, they are choosing to go to other forums like the consumer court.
In May 2017, private firm employee Arun (name changed on request) invested ₹65 lakh on a flat under construction in a project launched in 2012. He bought it “on resale” from the previous owner, but he is yet to get possession of his new house.
“I had filed a case against the builder for delay in compensation in Karnataka RERA and the order passed is evident that RERA has not been implemented in its true spirit. The builders are let go with minimal compensation and are allowed to delay the construction. In my case, the builder, who was supposed to handover the flat in September 2017 as per the agreement, has been given licence to delay handover till June 2018,” he said.
That deadline has passed too, and he is yet to get possession of his house.
Mr. Arun pointed to procedural lapses too: “I filed the complaint in November 2017 and the order came in March 2018. The Act says it has to be done within 60 days. The RERA then decided to let the builder go with ₹50,000 compensation amount for nine months’ delay. There is no justification on why this amount was decided. Can you get a two-BHK flat on rent for nine months in this amount? I have no choice but to appeal in a higher court,” he said.
In another case, a homebuyer booked a flat in Kanakapura in January 2015 and was promised possession in December 2017. “Now, the builder has stopped construction. After I approached RERA in mid-March, for which the hearing was in April and May, they have given January 2020 as the possession date and a compensation of ₹6 per sq ft i.e., ₹10,000,” he said. He has paid ₹1.1 crore for the flat.
“Builders are not taking RERA Karnataka seriously. I went five times and the builder came only the fifth time and submitted objections. We don’t know if the builder has diverted funds and stopped construction here. Yet, there is no stringent action from RERA. I approached the appellate tribunal last week,” he said.
Such stories have pushed another segment of homebuyers to approach the consumer courts instead. One of them is Vasu (name changed), who booked a flat in Hennur in 2013 and paid the full amount of ₹90 lakh. “I was promised possession in March 2015. But with RERA, they registered the handover date as January 2019. I decided to approach the consumer court in February 2017, even before the RERA was implemented in Karnataka, as there were already talks of a diluted Act doing the rounds,” he said.
Is he happy with the progress of the case in the consumer court? “It has been a year-and-a-half. The case is moving now. It is slow, it takes time. The builders know delaying tactics,” he said.
‘Unregistered projects’
RERA Karnataka officials said though they were equipped to handle complaints against projects registered under RERA, it was the unregistered ones that were the problem. “Under unregistered projects, there are exempted and not exempted categories. For complaints under the exempted category, people will have to approach other forums (such as consumer courts). For the others, we do follow up with the builders by sending notices,” said an official. The thrust right now is on registering more properties, the official said.
