Homebuyers hail new rules protecting their interest

LUCKNOW: Home buyers have welcomed the Uttar Pradesh government’s decision to bring in a standard agreement-to-sale format to protect their interest, redefining the home buyer-developer relationship and making the real estate sector more transparent and accountable.

“Whatever little that I have managed to go through the new rules (Uttar Pradesh Real Estate (Regulation and development) Agreement for Sale Rules, 2018 okayed by the state cabinet on October 10), it is indeed something that we had been demanding for a long time now,” says Ruchi G Puri, the woman who has been waging a relentless battle for harried homebuyers of Ansal API township in Lucknow.

“Unlike in the past where builders/developers made us sign agreements that were tilted heavily in their favour, the state government has specified terms and conditions making it a levelplaying field,” said Mohd Khalid, a real estate agent on Park Road.

To make it binding, the state government has now made it mandatory that all builderbuyer agreements would have to be registered with the sub-registrar’s office so that builders are not able to sell an apartment/flat to multiple buyers.

Harried allottees, who have been making rounds of the UP Real Estate Regulatory office to bring erring builder to book, feel that the rules would give them and the regulator the required teeth now to ensure justice is meted out to them.

“The exercise to frame the rules took several months. The state government had formed an 11-member committee and also sought views and suggestions from experts in the field before finalising the draft,” said a UPRERA official, requesting anonymity. The format would soon be published and publicized, he said adding that apart from introducing uniformity the standard agreement format would bring an end to all fine print or ambiguity. At present, developers use different formats while designing builder-buyer agreements, the conditions of which are often tilted in their favour.

Some of the key aspects that have been laid down to safeguard the interests of homebuyers include making it obligatory for the promoters to disclose the size of the apartment based on carpet area, category, floor, block etc even if earlier it (unit) was sold on super built-up area or built-up area.

Besides, the promoters or developers would no longer be able to make any changes to the sanctioned plan that had been sold without the written consent of the buyer.

Two months is the deadline within which the promoter would have to hand over the possession of the apartment to its owner after procuring completion certificate for the project.

It would be the duty of the developer to ensure maintenance of the building at least for one year or till it is fully transferred to the Apartment Owners’ Association (AOA).