Submission deadline nears but Karnataka RERA gets poor response from builders

The Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) in Karnataka has received a tepid response from builders, who have been mandated to submit quarterly updates on the status of their projects on or before Saturday. Sources said the RERA portal had received information on only 25% of the registered 2,200 projects till Tuesday evening. Builders, on the other hand, blame technical glitches on the website for delay or non-compliance. They also say the authority has sought several unnecessary details, including audit reports which have already been submitted during registration. “Developers are keen on submitting details but the portal has a lot of bugs,” said Suresh Hari, vice-president, Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association (CREDAI), Bengaluru, adding that it would be ambitious to expect compliance before the deadline if the snags aren’t fixed. As per the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, it’s mandatory for builders to upload the details — RERA registration, how much of the project is ready since it began and list of approvals taken and pending — every quarter. While it’s a must for a builder to deposit 70% of the amount collected from the buyer in an exclusive bank account and use it only for the specific project, the quarterly update should include the funds spent during the period. Karnataka was being criticized for not implementing this vital part of the Act and the government notified the rules for quarterly updates in May this year. However, RERA Karnataka postponed this as builders claimed the system wasn’t ready. The authority, after reading the software, again notified the rules on November 15 and asked developers to upload the data within a month. Since this is the first time developers are submitting updates, they are required to do so for all the projects they’ve registered since the inception of RERA in May 2017. Those who fail to comply are liable to pay a penalty of 5% of the project cost. “Quarterly updates are key for transparency. It’s unfortunate that both the government and developers are making lame excuses,” said Ajit N Naik, a RERA activist, adding that if complaints from builders about the portal are genuine, RERA should address them. “But the last date should not be extended,” he said.