RERA turns five, but homebuyers have little to cheer

The Karnataka Real Estate Regulation Authority (K-RERA), which completes its fifth year on Saturday, has failed to fulfil its purpose of bringing transparency to the sector.

Homebuyers and activists say they have problems getting crucial information about projects since the RERA website has failed to provide project-wise details. As a result, people continue to invest in projects without full information about their legality.

The Forum for People's Collective Efforts (FPCA), a civil society collective, noted that the authority continues to violate Section 34 (c) of RERA Act, which mandates it to maintain a database of defaulters, including photographs of the promoters, on its website for public viewing.

M S Shankar, general secretary, FPCA, said by not providing crucial information, officials allow unscrupulous promoters/builders to drag the real-estate industry to the pre-RERA period.

"Further, the opportunity for the development of the industry is denied by not adhering to the provisions of the act to upload the respective registered project link and its status on the KRERA website," he said.

Another homebuyers' forum posted details of 54 people who filed complaints as far back as in October 2020 that have not been heard by the authority.

"The @OfficeRera needs lot of improvement in attending home buyers’ complaints. Even after 9 months, no hearing dates being given. Is RERA functioning in Karnataka,” the forum demanded on Twitter.

Such delays only allow offenders to walk free, activists say. The forum of Nadaprabhu Kempegowda Layout site allottees said RERA should have penalised the BDA.

"Even without providing basic facilities in its layouts, BDA wants to collect maintainance fee and penalty from site owners failing to construct houses. But @OfficeRera which was supposed to penalise BDA and ensure timely completion continues to remain silent,” it stated.

In a letter to the chief secretary, Shankar said RERA must go beyond providing data on number of registered projects and disposed cases. He said RERA’s efficiency has to be assessed based on projects meeting deadline, the reduction of delay and the number of projects completed without any complaint.

Chairman's promise

The recently appointed RERA chairman H C Kishore Chandra said he was aware of the problems. “It’s about a month since I took over and there is a whole gamut of issues to be dealt with. Effective measures will be taken soon to address them,” he told DH.

He said he had ordered the officials to reject or accept project applications within 30 days. “I am also aware of the demand for disclosures. We will put such details on the website soon,” he added.

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