June 8, 2023: The Uttar Pradesh Real Estate Regulatory Authority (UP RERA) has recommended to the state government that the registry of flats in completed projects should be de-linked from the financial dues that builders owe to the Noida and Greater Noida authorities, according to a Hindustan Times report. This is aimed to benefit over two lakh homebuyers.
The UP government and the Centre had asked UP RERA to conduct a survey after the authority refused to issue occupancy certificates for completed projects unless the developer clears all financial dues. Since most developers have pending dues, thousands of homebuyers were unable to execute registries despite waiting for over a decade.
The Noida and the Greater Noida authorities said they were struggling to collect around Rs 50,000 crore dues from around 200 developers. The UP RERA suggested that if the present deadlock continues, then neither can the authority recover the dues nor can the homebuyers get flats registered in their names.
The UP RERA surveyed over 200 projects in the Gautam Budh Nagar district and shared its recommendation to the state government, suggesting the formulation of a practical policy to address issues on a case-to-case basis. The survey established that there are 44,000 units in which buyers have possession without registry and 1,25,000 units where no possession nor registry took place. These units are in the advanced stages of completion, according to officials.
According to the regulations, authorities issue an occupancy certificate to a completed project only if the project owner has cleared all dues and secured a no objection certificate (NOC) from the finance department of the authority concerned. However, most realtors failed to pay their dues and get an occupancy certificate, which resulted in delays in the registry of flats in the name of homebuyers.
Rajive Kumar, chairman, UP RERA said the authority had made recommendations under Section 32 of the RERA Act to the state government. This could resolve the issues for 1,65,000 homebuyers. He also added that the authorities could mortgage realtors’ personnel assets and properties, other than the project, as a guarantee so that the deadlock can be resolved and homebuyers get a resolution.
The regulatory authority also made other recommendations such as waivers on interest for the period when construction was disrupted owing to land disputes or other legal issues; cancellation of land in projects where there is no third-party interest; economically viable projects to be taken over by authorities and re-auctioned to invite the new developers to complete and deliver the project.
The Central Government has also constituted a committee to explore other options.
See also: UP RERA project and agent registration procedure
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