The Government of India enacted the RERA act on 26th March 2016 with an aim to protect home buyers and boost investments in the real estate industry. RERA stands for Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act which came into full force on the 1st May 2017. A commonly asked question is – What is Rera Act in real estate? There was plenty mistrust among the customers regarding the real estate industry. Home buyers have been complaining that the real estate transactions have long been in the favour of the developers only. They had to face a number of issues whose redressals were a hassle. The Government of India in order to solve the problems, enacted the RERA 2016 to provide protection to them and make all the transactions between the people and developers transparent and the impact of RERA on the real estate sector since its inception has been notable.
What are the benefits of RERA is the one question on the mind of the people. There are numerous benefits of the act especially to the home buyers. RERA ensures to create transparency of the procedures across the real estate projects in India. It aims to create a fair transaction between the seller and the buyers.
How will RERA impact home buyers and residential builders in India?
TRANSPARENCY
The act requires the developers and the real estate agents to register themselves with the Government. While registering themselves, they have to provide detailed information eg: land status, approvals, schedule of completion etc. This ensures transparency between them and the home buyers which enables smooth transaction of procedures. On completion of this is only when the developers will be able to go ahead with their projects.
RIGHTS OF BUYERS ARE PROTECTED IN CASE OF FRAUDS
In case of false promises made by the buyers, they won’t be able to get away easily. Violation of the act will result in penalties. The penalties include stiff monetary penalties upto 10% of the project and imprisonment upto 3 years in some cases. Incase there are any mismatches in the commitments made by the developer, the buyer can withdraw from the project and is entitled to full refund.
DEVELOPERS RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE IN THE HOUSE
Post construction within 5 years, if there are any damages in the house, the developer has to bear the cost of it. Any structural or workmanship defect also has to be rectified by the builder.
AFFORDABLE HOUSES
With the enforcement of this act, the buyers will only be required to pay for the carpet area, they won’t be charged for the super built up area. This ensure the buyers are not charged for the area outside the walls. This explains one important question that has surfaced which is what is RERA carpet area.
Now that we have established what is Real Estate Regulatory Act, we can also hope that the act has reduced home buyers’ anxiety about the real estate and this will hopefully reduce the mistrust and discrepancies that had prevailed in the real estate industry till now.