Hyderabad: The Tamil Nadu RERA has set an example for RERAs of other states to emulate. It advocated that it is always ahead of others in safeguarding the interests of buyers. An advertisement inserted by the RERA boosted the investor confidence in Tamil Nadu. It declared that reaching agreements for sale of properties and construction of property with customers without the permission of the RERA is against the law.
Cenotaph Developers LLP of Chennai in association with Olympia Tech Parkcollected 80 percent of the amount of the property from buyers in 2016 without entering into a formal agreement. After some time, the buyer withdrew from the project. The developer returned the amount collected from the buyer after deducting Rs 12.8 lakh as the service tax, forcing the customer to move the RERA, Tamil Nadu chapter.
Developers denied the customer’s allegations. They contended that they had paid Rs 12.8 lakh towards the service tax and hence they deducted the amount from the amount paid by the customer and returned the balance of the amount to him.
Hearing both sides, the RERA held that the developers should not collect 80 per cent of the cost of the property without entering into formal agreement. It is violative of Section 13 of the RERA Act. It decided the matter asking the developers to return the whole amount with 10.2 percent interest.
While the RERA in Tamil Nadu is finding solutions to consumers’ problems, the government in Telangana has put the RERA Telangana Chapter in the sleeping mode. The then commercial taxes secretary and senior bureaucrat Somesh Kumar succeeded Rajesh Tiwari as TSRERA chairperson. Subsequently, he went on to become Chief Secretary to the Government of Telangana. As a result, his workload increased. Therefore, he would not be able to pay attention to the affairs of the TSRERA. He is not active in resolving the consumers’ problems, which remain unsolved.
Several developers both big and small have been selling plots and flats as part of the pre-launch promotion activities. Some developers, without securing necessary permissions from local bodies, have been collecting 100 per cent cost of the property from middle classes and poor customers claiming to be offering property at a low price. In fact, those who are not connected in anyway with the construction sector intervened and brought pre-launch offers onto the screen. It was high-time the government of Telangana opened its eyes to the goings on and put halt to the illegal collections being resorted to by the developers. Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao should take action immediately putting the services of retired IAS officers at the disposal of the RERA.
