Homebuyers' apex body FPCE has written a letter to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, urging her to take necessary steps to make real estate law RERA functional in the state within one month.

Forum For People's Collective Efforts (FPCE), an umbrella body of homebuyers that played an important role in enactment and implementation of RERA, expressed concern over real estate law RERA still being non-functional in West Bengal, leaving buyers at the mercy of builders.

FPCE President Abhay Upadhyay, who is also a member of central advisory committee, RERA, wrote a letter on August 16, to the chief minister over the long wait for implementation of The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 (RERA) in West Bengal.

In May last year, the Supreme Court had struck down the West Bengal government's law WBHIRA for regulating the real estate sector, saying it was "unconstitutional".

The state government had introduced the West Bengal Housing Industry Regulatory Act (WBHIRA) as a substitute for the central law RERA, which was passed by Parliament in 2016.

The apex court's ruling came on a plea filed by the FPCE.

"... We regret to inform you that 'West Bengal Real Estate Regulatory Authority' and 'West Bengal Real Estate Appellate Tribunal' are still not functional in West Bengal," Upadhyay said.

He said that the appointment of chairperson and members of the regulatory authority as well as the Appellate Tribunal; creation of web page; and setting up of other infrastructure as needed for enforcement of RERA has also not yet been done.

"This has encouraged builders to blatantly violate the provisions of RERA. They are launching, advertising and selling real estate projects without registration in the state...," the FPCE President said.

Real estate developers are continuing malpractices, the association said.

It listed out some of the bad practices like taking more than 10 per cent money from homebuyers without executing Builder-Buyer Agreement, diverting funds from the projects, and changing the sanctioned plans, layout and specifications after project has been sold without taking consent of 2/3rd allottees for gains, etc.

All such actions of builders are expressly barred under RERA to protect the interest of homebuyers but builders are violating the norms as regulatory authority is not yet functional.

The association also pointed out that homebuyers, who had preferred complaints before the erstwhile WBHIRA are left in the lurch, as they have nowhere to go for furtherance of their complaints.

Prospective homebuyers who wish to buy their new dream homes are compelled to rely on the hollow promises of builders since they are unable to check the details of the projects as RERA website is still not operational, the letter said.

"Ma'am, as you may be aware, we are witnessing a real estate boom, and in the absence of a functional regulatory mechanism, the trust levels of prospective buyers from other states including NRIs are very low in the state of West Bengal," Upadhyay said.

The association also reminded that elected governments have been assigned by the constitution the important responsibility to ensure effective implementation of the law of the land so that citizens get justice within reasonable time as justice delayed is justice denied.

"We very humbly appeal to you, to kindly intervene in the matter and issue necessary directions to the concerned officers to take necessary steps on top priority basis to ensure that RERA is fully implemented with functional Regulatory Authority and Tribunal, operational website etc. in the state of West Bengal within next one month since already there has been a significant delay," Upadhyay said.

The FPCE President hoped that the Chief Minister will give "sympathetic consideration" to its appeal in the best interest of the state and also all its stakeholders.

As per the 'Implementation Progress Report' as on August 14, 2022 posted on the website of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, all states/UTs have notified rules under RERA except Nagaland.

As many as 31 States/UTs have set up a Real Estate Regulatory Authority (Regular - 25, Interim - 06). "Ladakh, Meghalaya, Sikkim and West Bengal have notified the rules while yet to establish an Authority," it said.

As many as 28 States/UTs have set up Real Estate Appellate Tribunal (Regular -24, Interim 04).

Arunachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Sikkim and West Bengal are under process to establish a tribunal.

"90,260 Real Estate Projects and 66,246 Real Estate Agents have registered under RERA across the country. 97,708 complaints have been disposed-off by the Real Estate Regulatory Authorities across the country," the report said.