Don’t go on a blind date with the real estate agent or an agent of a promoter company to buy your dream home in India. Utilize the information available on RERA portals and close the best deal for you. hashtag#RERA hashtag#homebuyersguide
Buying a home is a dream of a person and typically, it requires a person to invest substantial savings or to take a huge loan to fulfill his/her dream of having SAPNO KA GHAR. During the process of buying the home, the digital generation (who is into white-collar jobs) focuses more on the eye-catching advertisements, brochures, or multimedia content than the legal status of the project or promoter company.
Once you start going to the project’s actual location, the salesman of the promoter company makes huge promises on the quality of the construction, timelines, and customer satisfaction. The sole objective of the salesman is to close the deal irrespective of the conditions of the project vis-a-vis the requirements of the customer. To curb such practice in the real estate sector, the Indian Government enacted Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016. Each state of India has its own Real Estate Regulatory Authority which ensures the enforcement of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 in its respective state.
Therefore, you as a cautious buyer must ensure the following route at least before closing the real estate deal so that you can minimize the risk of cheating or fraud by real estate promoters.
- Once you have selected the real estate project, ensure that the project is registered in RERA.
- Browse the selected project on the RERA portal of your state and at least go through the following dates as well as documents in detail.
- Project Registration Date
- Project Completion Date
- Complaints Against the Promoter
- Complaints Against the promoter in the project
- Agents registered on the RERA to sell the project
- Bank account details of the project
- Approved Layout of the project
- Approved Specifications of the project
- Details of all units and towers of the project
- Lease Deed/ Ownership Agreements
- Details of Encumbrances on the project/promoter company
- Application Letter Template Allotment Letter
- Conveyance Deed
- Certificates from different departments
- Quarterly Progress Report
3. Go through all these documents in detail. Subsequently, raise your specific questions to the agents of the promoter to satisfy your requirements.
4. Some RERA portals have also started listing details of the projects which are listed under NCLT proceedings.
5. Try to join any Whatsapp group/ Telegram group/Facebook group/ Google Groups and seek feedback from the existing buyers on the status of the project as well as the promoter.
6. Always ensure proper communication with the agent or promoter only through email.
7. Typically, real estate agents or promoters give a surprise to the customers at the time of possession by raising illegal demand letters citing an increase in the super area or compensation to farmers or miscellaneous expenses. Always ensure to have written communication before closing any deal with the builder. If possible, execute a written agreement with the authorized person that no such escalation charges would be there at the time of physical possession of the unit.
Even after the 5 years of RERA, home buyers are still struggling with the strong builder lobby. Although the above checklist is not complete, yet I believe one should do his/her homework to reduce the risk of loss of life savings.
You can share your experience of buying real estate property in India and what you did to prevent yourself from cheating.