The regulatory authority is yet to develop to its full potential as an effective ombudsman of the crucial real estate sector
The regulatory authority is yet to develop to its full potential as an effective ombudsman of the crucial real estate sector
Five years after the establishment of the Karnataka Real Estate Regulatory Authority (K-RERA), the state government has shut it down in many ways, not allowing the institution to grow to its full potential as an effective real estate ombudsman. . region.
K-RERA has only one office in Bengaluru, across the state, and is functioning with a skeletal staff of barely 49 persons against the sanctioned strength of 64 and 15 vacancies. K-RERA has received 6,906 complaints, of which 3,522 are pending, and there are only four retired engineers to conduct on-the-spot inspections.
While this is supposed to penalize any project selling flats, plots without registration with K-RERA, the authority has not been able to do this effectively as it does not have any vigilance cell. The list of 1,051 unregistered projects on its website is taken from media advertisements and no enforcement has been done on them, except alerting homebuyers that they are not registered with the authority.
“We need well-staffed spot inspection and vigilance teams to function effectively. We have sought additional sanctioned number 183, which will also include technical staff. However, the government has not yet provided them with all the resources that the authority needs to be effective.
One of the biggest complaints against K-RERA was the delay in hearing of complaints. “Till recently only one bench in the authority was hearing, creating a backlog. But after clearing a legal hurdle, the authority now has six benches with three K-RERA members and at least 3 benches will hear cases every day – 60-80 cases are being heard everyday,” K-RERA Secretary Ibrahim Magur said. He also said that K-RERA recently held two Lok Adalats – on March 12 and June 25 – that cleared a total of 398 cases and ordered compensation of ₹ 13.8 crore to home buyers in two days.
However, the sting of K-RERA seems to have gone away, with its loose implementation of commands. The K-RERA orders mostly give monetary compensation to home buyers by imposing fines on promoters or developers, which they often fail to pay, forcing the authority to seek “revenue recovery” – the district deputy commissioner for confiscation and auction of the property. Let the process begin recover the fine imposed. However, excessive delay in revenue collection by DCs either due to stay orders of courts or red tape and laxity in implementation of K-RERA orders, has caused some loss to the authority.
K-RERA has issued “Recovery of Revenue” orders in 664 cases aggregating to ₹267.03 crore, out of which only ₹15.19 crore has been recovered in 48 cases and ₹251.83 crore in 616 till March 31, 2022. Huge recovery pending. case
“We have held several meetings with the revenue department to expedite the process, to no avail. They also cite staff shortage and other issues, which are real issues that we understand. Since most of these revenue collection cases are in Bengaluru (Urban) district, it will help K-RERA if a dedicated division is created in the district administration for revenue collection matters,” Mr. Magur said.