RERA Complaint Filing | How can buyers file complaint under RERA?

RERA Complaint Filing | What is RERA?

The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act (RERA) seeks to protect the interests of homebuyers and investors in the real estate sector. The RERA Act was notified on 1 May 2016, with some of its clauses notified, while all the remaining sections were notified on 1 May 2017. Under this Act, each state and union territory must notify the rules and regulatory authority for redress of grievances. The Act was formulated to streamline and standardize the unorganized real estate structure in India.

The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 has been enacted by the government to protect homebuyers against unfair trade practices of housing development and real estate project developers. Developers must obtain all necessary approvals from government bodies before essentially presenting the project to the public.

Developers must display all relevant information on the RERA website of the respective states. In the era before RERA, homebuyers were required to file complaints with the Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (CDRC), which took longer periods of time to address issues related to possession delays. RERA accelerates the grievance redressal process and removes the wrong builders from the market.

                                                                                                                           
Any person who has invested or has some legal interest in a real estate project can file a complaint with RERA. Under RERA, a buyer can file a complaint of: -

•    Passion delay
•    Wrong advertisement
•    Discrepancy in project registration
•    High advance payment
•    Structural defect
•    Incomplete project description

As per RERA Act, complaints can be lodged under Section-31 against developers, builders, contractors, agents or promoters of the project. Complaints can be lodged with the concerned State Regulatory Authority or the Assistant Officer within the norms prescribed under the RERA Act. It is advisable to seek the help of a lawyer at the time of filing a complaint as well as project document verification to avoid any future hassles.

The state-wise RERA portal has made online complaints for homebuyers hassle free. Filing a complaint under RERA can be given through the following steps:-

State's RERA website- Homebuyer is required to access the state's RERA website and register as a user. On the homepage of the website, the user can click on the "Complaint Registration" tab to file a complaint.

Filling up the complaint form - Once the user lands on the complaint registration form, he needs to fill his details and communication address to receive further communication. Subsequently, the user has to submit the reason for filing the complaint supported with the defendant (developer / builder / promoter / agent) details and supporting documents.

Fee Payment - Once the form is duly filled and verified, the user will have to make a small payment of Rs 1000 (varying from state to state) to further process the complaint. Users can pay online filing fees through various methods of payment.

Confirmation- post fee payment, the user will receive payment notification via message and email. The user can track the status of their complaint on RERA's website.

Chapter 8 of the RERA Act defines penalties, offenses and settlements in case the builder / developer / promoter fails to comply with the RERA rules. Delay in delivery, false advertising, structural defects and non-registration of a project with regulatory authority may impose a builder penalty of up to 10% of the estimated project cost.

In order to claim compensation from the builder, it is required to file a complaint with an officer in the same format as above. However, it should include additional details highlighting the cumulative interest developed for the payment schedule, distribution overrun and distribution overrun. Under the RERA Act, all complaints against builders / developers / promoters must be addressed by the RERA authority within 120 days.

Documents Required for Complaint Filing are:-

•    Sales agreement
•    Conveyance deed
•    Application letter

The RERA Act, which came into force in 2016, only managed to notify regulations and regulatory authority in 12 states and 1 union territory, Delhi, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka etc. are some of the states that are pioneers in the implementation process. In addition, 7 states and the remaining 6 union territories have managed to notify regulations in their respective states, but lack a regulatory authority to oversee this. Further, RERA is in progress in essentially the North-Eastern states, in the remaining 9 states except Jammu and Kashmir, where it is not applicable.

Until RERA is fully implemented pan-India, it will not succeed in reviving buyer sentiment in its area of ​​transparency and realty. Once the market is standardized, there will be an array of unsightly and out-of-market opportunities. However, in states where it has been successfully implemented, there has been a surge in demand from developers as buyers are riding sentiment.