Mumbai: Model builder-flat buyer agreement will bring in uniformity, say experts

Property lawyers and Real Estate Regulatory Authority RERA practitioners have welcomed the Central governments move to bring about a model builderflat buyer agreement with mandatory clauses that cannot be altered by states or the Union Territories According to experts this will bring muchrequired uniformity in the real estate sector across the countryMaharashtra tops states in the implementation of the RERA Act and MahaRERA rules have been adopted by more than 20 states but unfortunately it is among the thirteen states that have not submitted their responses to the Supreme Court in this particular case Experts feel this may be due to the political turmoil in the state and the delay in the approval of the proposed Development Plan of Mumbai 2034Some experts feel that once the Maharashtra Ownership of Flats Act MOFA is repealed flat buyers will not be able to initiate criminal action against errant developers and therefore the state government should reconsider the repeal of the lawAlso Read lsquoIndia doesnrsquot spend even Rs 100day on a prisonerrsquo How access to medical care in prisons can be improvedTwopart draft modelRamesh Prabhu founder chairman of MahaSEWA said ldquoThe proactive intervention of the Supreme Court in appointing Devashish Bharuka amicus curiae to draft the model agreement is a welcome moverdquo ldquoThe apex courts recent rulings speak about the seriousness with which the apex court wants to implement the model agreement As per RERA rulemaking powers are vested with the state governmentThough the states have prescribed model agreements the promoters are given the liberty to include their own clauses which is against the interest of allottees Though the Centre advised the state governments to make the rules and model agreements as per the provisions of RERA the latter were not serious about adopting them Therefore the apex court has intervenedrdquoPrabhu stated that the amicus curiae appointed by the apex court has drafted the model agreement in two parts ldquoPart A will have mandatory clauses that cannot be changed by the promoter These clauses will be provisions of RERA to protect the interest of allottees Part B contains clauses which the promoter may change considering the local conditions of the states concerned MahaRERA has recently issued a circular demanding a deviation report of the clauses that are in addition to the model agreement or which are changed compared to it This has not served the required purpose Once the allottee likes the project they sign on the dotted line The apex court having understood the helplessness of the allottees has taken this proactive step The uniformity and standardization are one of the main purposes of RERArdquo he saidEarlier drafts onesidedAdvocate Godfrey Pimenta of Watchdog Foundation said that instead of following the model draft agreement stipulated in Rule 10 of the Maharashtra Ownership Flats Rules 1964 and Form No V of the MOFA Rules builders have their own drafts which are mostly onesided and favour developersRelief to flat buyersAdvocate Vinod Sampat founder and president of the Flat Users Residents Welfare Association said The new model agreement will protect the overall interest of buyers In my view this will be a very good move and the tendency of the state governments to help builders will certainly get minimisedrdquoHousing federation reactsAdvocate Shreeprasad Parab expert director at State Housing Federation said ldquoBefore the enactment of RERA the slogan of caution was lsquoLet the buyer bewarersquo and now it has changed to lsquolet the promoter bewarersquo Thus the enactment of RERA is for regulation and promotion of the real estate sector and to ensure the sale of a plot apartment or building as the case may be or the sale of a real estate project in an efficient and transparent manner and to protect the interest of consumers at largerdquo