Centre holds round table meeting in Mumbai to redress home buyers' grievances; suggests solutions

Round Table Meeting Mumbai: To identify actionable solutions to pressing issues like misleading advertisements by real estate companies, unfair builder-buyer agreements, and delays in the delivery of real estate projects, the Department of Consumer Affairs on Tuesday, April 18, held a Round Table Conference in Mumbai, Maharashtra.

In the meeting, organised in association with the Government of Maharashtra, participants suggested prohibiting builders from launching projects before obtaining all necessary permissions and sanctions. There were discussions about what action can be taken against unfair and misleading advertisements by developers and endorsers.

Rohit Kumar Singh, Secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs, in his address, highlighted the staggering number of pending cases in the housing sector at different Consumer Commissions. Out of over 5.5 lakh cases currently awaiting resolution, over 54,000 cases are related to the housing sector. This backlog of cases highlights the importance of providing speedy justice to homebuyers.

To address these challenges, the secretary suggested implementing a simple, model-buyer agreement that can help streamline the homebuying process and protect consumers from potential abuses. This agreement could help resolve disputes between homebuyers and builders and ensure that consumers have access to effective, speedy, hassle-free, and inexpensive grievance redressal mechanisms.

Here are the key problems identified for homebuyers and key suggestions made during the meeting.

During the conference, the key problems identified for the homebuyers are as follows:

Delay in the delivery of possession of property to homebuyers.
No compensation for the delay in giving possession to homebuyers.
Biased, one-sided, and unfair builder-buyer agreements.
Amenities not provided to homebuyers as per the agreement.
Misleading advertisements by developers and influencers to lure homebuyers.
Non-adherence to the model builder-buyer agreement proposed by RERA.

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Key suggestions made during the discussion included:

Sending the draft agreement to buyers before execution.
Clearly mentioning permissions and sanctions obtained from competent authorities on the first page of the agreement.
Prohibiting builders from launching projects before obtaining all necessary permissions and sanctions.
Including an exit clause for homebuyers in all agreements, valid until the Occupancy Certificate (OC) or Completion Certificate (CC) is obtained and possession is offered by the builder.
Including a schedule of additional charges beyond the cost of the unit/apartment in all agreements.
Requiring all agreements to contain mandatory declarations regarding no dues from any authority/banks and all necessary legal sanctions and approvals from competent authorities.
Taking strong action against unfair and misleading advertisements by developers and endorsers.
Forming a committee comprising members of the National Commission, various State Consumer Commissions, RERA, the Department of Consumer Affairs, and IBBI to effectively deal with the issue.

It should be noted the conference had participation from a diverse group of stakeholders, including government officials, chairman of RERA, Delhi, Chairman, MahaRERA, officials from MOHUA, IBBI, legal experts, industry leaders, and consumer rights activists.

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