From today, a home buyer is a king not to be left at the mercy of realtors, with the much-awaited Real Estate Regulation Act (Rera) coming into force on May 1.

But so far, only 13 states including Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Delhi have notified the rules while another 16 have prepared draft rules and legal opinion is being taken in respect of North-Eastern states, given the land ownership issues there.

The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill, 2016, was passed by the Rajya Sabha on March 10 and by the Lok Sabha on March 15 last year.

About 60 sections of the Act were brought into force with effect from May 1 last year. The remaining 32 sections were notified on April 19. The Maharashtra government has been proactive on this, clearing the state Real Estate Regulatory Authority and appointing the housing regulator even before the Centre made the norms effective.

“With setting up of the regulator in accordance with the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, Maharashtra, joins a small community of states that has notified their respective realty regulators to be set up for the first time ever. With the April 30 deadline for all states to pass Rera for their respective regions looming, only 13 states and Union Territories have reportedly notified their rules so far,” Ramesh Nair – CEO & country head, JLL India, said.

States including Haryana, Punjab, Kerala, Rajasthan, Karnataka, others, have reportedly prepared draft rules and are expected to notify them soon.

“Though Maharashtra’s draft Rera rules had covered all under-construction projects, irrespective of whether some of the individual towers/ phases received occupation certificate or not, it had diluted some other sections. After activists raised objections, the Maharashtra government decided to include these sections too,” Nair said.

The rules are serious about under-construction residential projects.

Developers of ongoing projects, as on the date of commencement of the rules which have not received completion certificates, will need to apply to the regulatory authority for registration of their project within three months of the commencement of the Act.

The consumer-centric law prescribes compulsory registration of all ongoing and upcoming real estate projects, as well as penalties and punitive measures on developers who delay their projects.

All developers are required to disclose their project details on the regulator’s website and provide quarterly updates on construction progress.

In the case of project delays, the onus of paying the monthly interest on bank loans taken for under-construction flats will lie on developers.

A separate account will have to be used to deposit 70% of the money collected for the project’s construction, and developers can draw from it only for construction purposes. The appellate tribunal will hear and act on all related grievances.

Also, switch from build-up to carpet area will give clarity of what actually buyer will get and the developer cannot tamper the offered design, which will attract penalty. Last, but not the least, the parking area needs to be clearly mentioned in the agreement.

It’s not only consumers, the builders too would benefit.

“With Rera getting implemented, developers and real estate agents will come under scanner and bring in the much-required transparency in the system. Rera required enrollment of the developers, agents, projects, submission and disclosure of all project related document like approved design, land acquisition document and even project status on the regular basis will automatically create the brand equity for the developers,” Abhishek Lodhiya, senior equity analyst, Angel Broking said.

“The real estate sector might witness the beginnings of a fresh uptrend, driven by improving consumer sentiment in anticipation of higher transparency and efficiency, renewed confidence in the economy, and lower home loan rates “ Sunil Sharma, VP-CRM and marketing, Mahindra Lifespaces said.

Another positive impact would the manifold growth of the nascent home inspection industry. “Already 7-8 companies have started offering home inspection services at various locations across the country,” Dileep Singh Mehta of Multicon Group.

THE ACT SAYS