Government offices in Haryana to distribute affordable housing forms

For the first time, application forms for buying flats in privately developed societies under affordable housing scheme will be available from government offices. This was decided by Haryana Real Estate Regulatory Authority (H-Rera) after it received complaints about malpractices during allotment of flats under the scheme. Earlier, potential buyers of flats in affordable housing projects had to buy their application forms from the developer’s office. There were many complaints that this allowed the developer an opportunity to control the sale of forms, influence the draw against premium amounts, and allot flats to their friends and relatives, leaving genuine buyers frustrated Taking serious note of these complaints, H-Rera chairman K KKhandelwal on Tuesday directed the senior town planner to curb irregularities in the scheme and take penal action against developers found violating conditions of licence. “It has come to our notice that large-scale bungling and malpractices are being carried out by promoters of affordable housing, including charging hefty premiums as high as Rs 2.5 lakh per application, for confirming allotment of units. This is being made possible because promoter is issuing the same number of application forms as the number of units available, so that the applicant paying the premium is guaranteed an unit,” said Khandelwal. The H-Rera panel said if forms are not given to other eligible applicants, the purpose of affordable housing is defeated. Therefore, applications should be made available at designated government offices, including those of the DTCP deputy commissioner, which will additionally ensure transparency in the system, they added. The authority also observed that the application fees were abnormally high, in some cases as much as Rs 25,000, which is unreasonable, adding it should not be more than Rs 1,000.