Builder-Buyer Agreement Is Flat Allotment Date: SC

Providing relief to thousands of homebuyers, the Supreme Court has ruled that the period of allotment of a housing unit to a homebuyer has to be considered from the date of the builder-buyer agreement and not from the date of registration of the project under the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016. Homebuyers have welcomed the order, saying that the apex court has restored the sanctity of the builder-buyer agreement and the developers' (whose projects have been delayed) stand of linking the allotment or handover of flats with the date of RERA registration has been dispelled. The builder-buyer agreement becomes effective upon signing and all obligations of the flat buyers get linked to the timelines set out in the builder-buyer agreement but developers all along have been taking undue benefit of a delayed RERA registration and linking their obligations with the RERA registration date, said legal experts. What this order means is that if a residential project’s RERA registration expires later than the handover date promised by the builder under the builder-buyer agreement, it does not mean that buyer’s entitlement to raise claim or cause of action gets deferred, legal experts said.