Earlier, the common man who had invested his life savings into buying a real estate had limited rights. To change this, the government imposed the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 to protect and safeguard the interest of home buyers, and ensure they are not duped or exploited by any developers.

Although in Maharashtra, acts like the Maharashtra Ownership Flats Act and the Maharashtra Regional Town Planning Act already existed to bring in transparency and discipline in transactions of flats by putting a check on malpractices, the RERA has made the provisions far more stringent for the developers and beneficial to the flat buyers.

The Act enlists a lot of measures to provide relief to home buyers, let us take alook at some key benefits a home-buyer can experience with RERA in action.

A standardised definition of Carpet area:

Instances of people duped by builders based on carpet area were quitecommon before the implementation of RERA. Earlier, the price of the property was defined by the carpet area of the house. However, this carpet area was not clearly defined by the law, resulting in various builders coming up with their own formulas.

Before the Act, a builder could calculate the carpet area of a flat as 600 sq ft, whereas another could tally it to be 500 sq.ft. This ambiguity hadled to a lot of pricing concerns and thus to address this RERA has clearlydefined the carpet area, which every builder/developer has to follow.

As per the Act, "carpet area" means the net usable floor area of an apartment, excluding the area covered by the external walls, areas under services shafts, exclusive balcony or verandah area and exclusive open terrace area, but includes the area covered by the internal partition walls of the apartment.

Only 10% advance

Buying a home is most people's dream, yet many were not able to buy their own house because of the exorbitant deposits that home buyers were asked to make before the project was even completed. But, the RERA has put a check on this by limiting the builders to get an entitlement of not more than 10% as advance. This has made home-buying more affordable among many sections of people.

Documents to be handed to buyer made mandatory

Before RERA came into force, home buyers were sometimes not provided with essential documents, which used to keep them under a lot of ambiguity. However, the RERA has nowmade it mandatory for all developers to hand over documents such as brochure of the project, copy of registration, bank details, project details and many more.

A builder cannot delay project completion:

Delay in handing over ofprojects by the developer within the stipulated time frame has been a major worry for buyers. Therefore now the RERA has made it mandatory for the builder to specify the period of the completion and handing over the project at the time of registration.

The timeline has to be followed by the builder and if he fails to complete the project within the stated time, then the project might get revoked and his project would be usurped by the Regulator. The developer would also have to give a full refund to the home buyers within a stipulated time.

Rights of the buyer in case of delay in project completion

If a situation arises wherein a builder has not been able to hand over the house at the said date, the buyer has every right to withdraw from the project from the very next day itself. The buyer will also be entitled to a full refund along with interest payable from the due date of completion of the project until it is completed.

If a home buyer does not want to withdraw from the project, he will also be entitled to compensation along with the interest.

Speedy redressal of disputes:

RERA has brought about a momentous change in the real industry by making the complaint solving process much faster. Under the act, any complaint against the builder can be taken to the state authority set up by RERA. Once the appeal has been filed with the appellate, the Appellate Tribunal will need to redress the complaint within 60 days.

The establishment of RERA to bring about transparency and accountability is a historic feat in the real estate industry. As per reports, over 20,000 complaints of homebuyers have been resolved till last month under the new law.