Delhi may miss RERA deadline as govt seeks industry view on rules

NEW DELHI: The urban development ministry has asked industry bodies to submit their suggestions on rules of Real Estate Regulatory Act (RERA) for Delhi within a week in a signal that the deadline of October 31 to notify the rule would be missed.

Rajiv Gauba, secretary at the ministry, conveyed this to representatives from bodies including CREDAI, Naredco, Ficci, Assocham, PHD Chamber and DDA at a meeting to discuss draft rules of RERA for Delhi on Thursday.

The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill, 2016, which aims to regulate the housing sector and protect consumer interests, was passed by Rajya Sabha on March 10 and by Lok Sabha on March 15.

The rules were set to be notified by October 31, or within six months of the Act coming into force, according to a notification in late April.

“We had a meeting with the secretary of along with the industry bodies. We will be submitting the suggestions in a week,” said Getamber Anand, president at Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Associations of India (CREDAI), the apex body of private realty developers.

Single-window clearance or coordination between the approving departments was one of the many demands of the builders.

“We have asked the government to consider the date of applying for the occupation certificate (OC) for a project as the completion date, and not the date on which it is issued finally,” said Parveen Jain, president at National Real Estate Development Council (Naredco), a self-regulatory body of the industry.

Abhay Upadhyay, national convener of homebuyers' body 'Fight for RERA', criticised the delay and said the government was setting a wrong precedent by not inviting consumers for these meetings. “A delay in notification of RERA norms means that the nexus between builders and authorities, which we were trying to break, is still at play,” he alleged.

The ministry of housing and urban poverty alleviation (HUPA) will bring out RERA rules for five union territories of Andaman & Nicobar, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman & Diu and Lakshadweep, while the urban development ministry will come out with RERA rules for Delhi.

Other states will either come out with their own rules or have the option to adopt HUPA-notified rules.

SOURCE: ETRealty