Home buyers can’t file complaint against unlisted developers on RERA website

Pune: Consumers wishing to raise their complaints on the Real Estate and Regulatory Authority ( RERA) website will have to wait till their developers register on the portal.

The RERA rules for the state came into effect from May 1, specifying norms for developers, real estate agents and the consumers. Given the fact that the existing projects have been given a time limit of three months to register on the website, the consumers have been left in a quandary.

Due to this, a lot of people have approached the Pune Grahak Manch, a consumer forum, with their complaints. The forum will take up all these issues with the RERA authorities and the state housing department.

"The aggrieved consumers can either register their complaints with RERA or the consumer court. If a developer does not register with the RERA website and seeks extension, the consumers will be left with no other option but to move consumer court, which already has a huge pendency of cases," Vijay Sagar of Pune Grahak Manch said.

A consumer said his builder had illegally constructed 20 flats and even as the PMRDA registered an FIR against the builder and started work on pulling down the illegal floors, the builder managed to get a stay. "In such cases where will the consumer go?" he asked.

Another consumer said his developer had delayed the possession of his flat for three years. "Even the quality of construction was not up to the mark," he alleged, adding that since his builder is not registered with the RERA portal, what shall he do now?.

Interim regulator Gautam Chatterjee told TOI that the developers will have to register with the RERA to allow consumers to raise their complaints on the portal. "Unfortunately, this is the rule," he said.

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