What RERA means for real estate agents, underconstruction projects
The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 requires a regulator to be set up by 1 May, 2017. Projects and real estate agents will have three months to register themselves with the regulator—that is, before July 31.
Under the Act, to offer their services, all agents have to register with the regulator. Developers, while registering their projects, are also liable under the Act to disclose the names and other details of authorised agents dealing in their projects. The real estate agents will be provided with a registration number by the regulator, which they have to mention in each sale that they are part of.
The agents are required to maintain books of accounts, records and documents related to every transaction done by them. They are barred from making any false representation—whether written, oral or by visual representation. Also, agents are required to share all the information and documents about the project with the buyers at the time of booking a property.
Once a regulator is in place, and agents get registered, it will become difficult for the latter to mislead homebuyers. Sometimes, in order to convince buyers to buy a property, agents manipulate information. For instance, they may tell them that very few units of a project are left for sale, or that the developer will raise prices in a few days. Rushed into a decision, some buyers may not do the due diligence required on their part. However, once the regulator is in place home buyers will be able to crosscheck most of the project information on its website.
The Act also provides for penalties and imprisonment of agents who violate any of its rules and regulations. For some offences the penalty is Rs10,000 per day. Agents could also face imprisonment of up to one year.
The regulator will maintain a list of authorised agents on its website, along with details of projects that they are allowed to deal in. Those found to be in violation of the rules will be removed from this list