UP RERA’s 100th meeting on its fourth anniversary; lists it’s achievements

August 16, 2022: The 100^th Meeting of U.P. RERA was held on August 16, 2022 under the Chairmanship of its Chairman Rajive Kumar. The meeting was attended by Member Kalpana Mishra and other officers of the Authority.

This 100^th meeting coincided with the completion of four years of the Regular Authority.

Chairman Rajive Kumar reflected upon the endeavours and achievements of U.P. RERA till date and stated that U.P. RERA has been at the forefront of innumerable new initiatives in the country. These positive strides of RERA could not have been possible without the invaluable contributions and constructive co-operation extended by the hon’ble members of the Authority, its officers, the competent authorities and home buyers’ and promoters’ associations. He expressed his heartfelt thanks to all and called upon them to sustain the momentum. He extended his special gratitude to the State Government and emphasised that the Government has steadfastly supported RERA in all its activities towards realization of the objects of the RERA Act.

Some of the important interventions and achievements of U.P. RERA towards the protection of the interests of the consumers and for improvement and growth in the real estate sector are being given briefly herein below:

Resolution of the Consumer Complains (Cases) 

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U.P. RERA has received 44,555 consumer complains which is about 38 per cent of the total complaints filed across the country. U.P. RERA is thus carrying a disproportionately higher burden of complaints on its shoulders. Still it has successfully handled this onerous responsibility and decided 39709 of these complaints which is about 40 per cent of the complaints decided in the country as a whole.

The figure below shows the comparative position of different RERAs in disposal of complaints.

Fig: Status of the Complaints Filed and Decided by Leading RERAs

Fig: Year Wise Filing & Disposal of Complaints in UP RERA

Enforcement of Orders

Orders Of Refund 

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Wherever the orders of UP RERA are not complied within time, the complainant can file online application for execution of the order. Out of the total orders of the Authority, 22890 orders required compliance from the promoters against which 12228 complainants have filed online requests for execution of orders. Out of these execution requests, 7377 requests are for execution of orders of refund and 4290 requests for those of possession. U.P. RERA has issued 5625 recovery certificates collectively amounting to Rs. 1761.88 Cr against the orders of refund. So far, an amount of Rs. 344.62 Cr, collected in 2699 matters, has been transferred to the concerned allottees and in 1324 matters, having collective monetary value of Rs. 448 Cr, the parties have either entered into settlement during enforcement proceedings before RERA Benches or the promoters and the complainants settled the demands through mutual settlements. Thus demand worth Rs. 792.62 Cr in 4023 out of 7377 matters has been discharged either through recovery of money or through settlement between the parties. This is about 54.5 percent of the refund execution requests received in the Authority. The Authority and respective District Magistrates are assiduously working for enforcement of the remaining orders.

Fig: Year Wise Value of the Recovered and Settled Amounts  

Orders of Possession

The Authority has successfully ensured compliance through enforcement of 3129 out of 4721 orders of possession cum payment of delay interest which is about 66 per cent of such orders. Proceedings to enforce the remaining orders are underway at the level of the Authority.

Compliance through Mutual Settlements

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In addition to the above, as many as 1311 complaints were finally resolved by the Benches of RERA through settlement between the parties during the course of hearing itself which demonstrates the resolution of the Authority to finally settle the disputes.

Altogether, the Authority has ensured, through enforcement, compliance of over 69.2 per cent of the orders against request of execution so far. 

Amicable Settlement of Consumer Disputes through Conciliation 

With the approval of the State Government two conciliation fora, respectively at Lucknow and Greater Noida were established towards the end of 2018 for amicable settlement of disputes between the promoters homebuyers through mutual settlements. These fora have amicably settled 973 matters so far, while contributing to project rehabilitation and account settlement between buyers and builders.

Registered Projects

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There are 2056 ongoing and 1211 new projects registered in RERA. Ongoing denotes the projects that were ongoing on 1^st May 2017. Out of 2056 ongoing projects, 1069 projects (52%) are in  eight districts of NCR – mainly in Gautam Budhnagar, Ghaziabad, Meerut and Hapur. Out of 987 (48%) ongoing projects in 67 districts of Non-NCR, 399 projects (19.4 %) are in Lucknow. Out of 1211 new projects, 452 projects (37%) are in NCR and 759 projects (63%) are in Non-NCR. Whereas the share of NCR in ongoing projects is 52.5 percent, in new projects it is 37.5 percent only.  There appears to be visible consolidation of the real estate sector in NCR due to sufficient earlier supplies. Of late, the real estate sector is gaining momentum outside the NCR as can be seen registration of 139 new projects in Non-NCR, mainly in Lucknow, Varanasi and Gorakhpur, compared to 74 projects in NCR during last one year. The real estate sector has gained momentum during recent times.

Fig: Trend of Registration of New Projects in NCR and Non-NCR.

Completed Projects

Out of 2056 registered ongoing projects, 1300 projects (64.70%) projects have been completed. After RERA, there is discernible improvement in the rate of completion of projects.

Fig:  Year Wise Completion Status of Ongoing Projects

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Digitization

U.P. RERA is providing all services and facilities online to all stake holders including the home buyers, the promoters and the real estate agents through its extremely user-friendly interactive website, e.g. :-

• Registration and extension of projects
• Registration and extension of real estate agents
• Quarterly progress report of projects and other updates 
• E-courts
• Filing of complaints and documents, hearing and orders
• Application execution of orders and enforcement proceedings
• Order compliance tracking module for home buyers and promoters
• Certified copies of orders and documents
• RERA Samvaad

E-courts

UP RERA switched over to e-courts in February 2020 and was first Regulatory Authority in the country to do so. Since the introduction of e-courts, 20634 aggrieved persons have filed complaints through e-courts module and Authority has so far decided 15884 of these complaints. The parties have the facility of an interactive forum under the e-courts module and entire process starting from filing to hearing is simple, user-friendly and cost free. The parties can participate in the proceeding from their homes or offices or any other location as per convenience. The e-courts has yielded highly salutary results and has been welcomed by all the stake holders. The Authority could hear and decide the complaints in a normal fashion even during the dislocations caused by Covid-19 Pandemic, largely because of e-courts, ensuring everyone safety too.

RERA Samvaad

To provide a safe method of interacting with the officers during the Covid-19 pandemic Uttar Pradesh RERA started online RERA Samvaad in May 2020 where a person could raise his issues online and a video interaction slot was provided to him. This proved to be quite popular and this option is still being used by stakeholders due to the convenience it provides. So far 90 Samvaads have been held on this online platform addressing over 2500 matters raised by the stake holders. 

Penal Action Against the Defaulters

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• Registration of 73 projects of 31 defaulting promoters has been revoked under section 7 of RERA. 
• Penalty of over Rs. 40 crore has been imposed against 19 promoters/real estate agents under section 3/59 for promotion and marketing of projects without registration or promotion in contravention of other provisions of the RERA Act.
• Penalty of over Rs. 18.20 crore has been imposed upon the promoters for non-filing of quarterly progress reports of the projects on the website of the Authority under section 61 of RERA Act. 
• Penalty of over Rs. 20 crore has been imposed upon 71 promoters under section 63 of the RERA Act for violation of the orders of the Authority.
• Recommendation for investigation by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) was made to government against two companies, namely Unnati Fortune Pvt. Ltd. of Gautambudh Nagar and R. Sons of Lucknow.

New Initiatives 

• A new avenue for stranded homebuyers to complete housing projects was made available by U.P. RERA utilizing the provisions of Sec-8 of the Act. Of these 14 project, the first successful completion has been achieved with the grant of O.C. for 02 towers of Jaypee Greens Kalypso Court (Phase – II) having 148 units by NOIDA Authority. After completion of the 14 projects, about 7000 allottees will be able to get long awaited possession of their houses. 

• UP RERA has issued comprehensive Directions for Maintenance and Operation of Project Accounts on 24-12-2020 to ensure utilization of the money collected from home buyers as per the provisions of RERA. These directions provide for maintaining three accounts, namely Collection Account, Separate Account and Transaction Account and giving their particulars on the website of the Authority with a view to ensure transparency and accountability.
• UP RERA has got a Grading Framework for the Projects and Promoters prepared through CRISIL with a view to promote healthy competition in the sector and to guide the allottees in making secure investments. The actual grading will commence after approval of the Grading Framework by the State Government. 
• UP RERA has presented well thought out and reasoned proposals for amendment to the RERA Act to Government of India and amendment to Rules to Government of Uttar Pradesh. These amendments, once agreed and notified, will help in better guarding of consumer interests.
• UP RERA has presented proposal to Government of Uttar Pradesh for issuing appropriate guidelines for promotion and marketing of projects by the promoters, agents and electronic, digital and print media. UP RERA has also presented the Government of Uttar Pradesh a proposal for issuing appropriate and comprehensive guidelines for constitution of AoA/ RWA.

Role of UP RERA in Protecting the interests of the allottees before Hon’ble Supreme Court and High Court in the SLPs and Writs files by the Promoters

The RERA Act has been enacted with a view to ensure accountability, transparency and financial discipline in the real estate sector and to ensure the protection of consumer rights. A class of promoters had been continuously trying to weaken some of the provisions of the RERA Act and to restore status quo ante. They have filed 1388 writs before the Hon’ble High Court of Allahabad and 36 SLPs before the Hon’ble Supreme Court to somehow obtain such orders which could help them to continue with hitherto unfair and unequal trade practices. UP RERA effectively defended all these matters so that impediments in granting justice to the consumers could be removed.

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