An Overview Of The Real Estate Bill 2013

By Author: Ashil Patel
Total Articles: 33
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Real estate in India is growing like never before and over the next few years we can expect lakhs of apartments to come up across India. Owners of large apartment complexes are likely to face a few challenges in terms of a delay in handover, change in construction deliverables, access to information to share with buyers, changeover of conveyance of the property to the home owner's society, lack of grievance forums and so on. Such future considerations make it imperative that regulations should be in place to govern them.
The proposed Real Estate Regulation and Development Bill which was introduced in the Rajya Sabha and which has already been passed by the Cabinet has 10 features that may be a good start in dealing with these concerns that will only be compounded if no regulation is brought in real estate business.
1. Standardization of names. Since there is plenty of ambiguity on this, standard definitions to be used for real estate terms. For example- carpet area, common area, utility area, built up area, super built up area, etc.
2. Using the term 'carpet area' only for sale instead of terms to confuse buyers ...
... like super built up area, etc.
3. Introduction of Real Estate Regulatory Authority which provides regulations and enforcements and also penalties to developers.
4. Registration of agents. This is completely unregulated and as intermediaries they have an important role to play. This not only regulates real estate agents but also lays down certain rules for them pertaining to documentation and record keeping.
5. The promoter needs to disclose all relevant information to the buyer and this also encompasses the authenticity of advertisements, structural defects and refund against default.
6. Rights and duties of assignees are enforced. This ensures right to information regarding the property which includes completion status, possession time period, refund with interest, documentation and plans. Adhering to the agreement and terms to that effect.
7. Registration of all projects prior to sale. This should follow approval from the development and municipal authorities.
8. Public disclosure of project details. This includes promoter details, the layout, carpet area, number of apartments and all other relevant details.
9. Maintain bank account for separate projects. Also 70% of the money collected needs to be deposited in these accounts.
10. Fast track dispute resolution to be created. This will be supported by a Real Estate Appellate Tribunal.
This bill is expected to bring regulation and order to the existing Indian Real Estate Market. One can expect greater accountability and fair practice from owners of large projects. It is definitely not a win-win situation but the common man stands to gain along with builders of big projects. Somewhere in between the small time builders will phase out from the scenario with greater oligopoly coming in.