Goa extends RERA deadline till October on delay in notifying rules

The central Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act (RERA) came into effect on May 1, 2017, exactly a year after it was passed by Parliament

PANAJI: A delay in notifying the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act (RERA) rules for Goa has once again delivered a setback to consumers who were waiting for RERA to be enforced before buying homes. The BJPgovernment on Sunday extended the deadline to October for ongoing projects to register with RERA, even though the central government and other states have clearly refused to grant an extension.

The central Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act (RERA) came into effect on May 1, 2017, exactly a year after it was passed by Parliament. As per the Act, developers, projects and agents had till July 31 to mandatorily register their projects with the Real Estate Regulatory Authority.

Any unregistered project would be deemed to be unauthorized by the regulator, but since the state government has failed to notify the rules and the authority as on date, the ministry of urban development has given Goan builders additional time to register with RERA.

TOI had reported on July 15, that the Goa government was likely to accept the demands from builders and extend the deadline by three months.

“Builders and promoters can submit their applications of new and ongoing projects in the prescribed form which can be downloaded from the website. For ongoing projects, applications for registration will be accepted upto October 31, 2017, without levy of penalty,” designated Real Estate Regulatory Authority Sudhir Mahajan said.

The central law, which was enacted to regulate the real estate sector and secure the interest of consumers, states that no builder can advertise, market or sell a plot, apartment or building without registering the real estate project with the Real Estate Regulatory Authority.

A builder has to pay Rs 10 per sqm of area to the regulator as registration fees for the project.

Goa is one of the few states in the country which has failed to notify the RERA rules. Officials said, the RERA rules for Goa have been framed along the lines of the regulations notified by Maharashtra, which has partially diluted the penalties for non-compliance by builders.

“Notification of the rules will take time. We will try to do it at the earliest,” Mahajan said to TOI when asked if the rules under RERA will be notified in the coming days.

The new regulatory authority was meant to end the uncertainty for home buyers, bring transparency and protect buyers from unscrupulous builders.

Credit : http://realty.economictimes.indiatimes.com/