All You Need to Know About Karnataka RERA

The Karnataka State Assembly approved its own set of rules for the Real Estate (Regulation & Development) Act, 2016, on July 5 and now, the final Karnataka RERA rules are notified. Here is the Karnataka RERA website - http://rera.karnataka.gov.in/home

Here are certain things that you need to know about the Karnataka RERA, which are significantly different from the central guidelines:

• The Karnataka RERA will not have projects for which sale deeds have been executed for 60 per cent of units under its purview.

• Projects, where common areas have been handed over to the registered association, which is represented by majority allottees, are exempted from the act. 

• Projects which have received completion/ occupation certificate or projects where an application for completion/occupancy certificate has been filed or even projects with partial occupancy certificates have been excluded from the act.

• The imprisonment clause on violations have been diluted with the punishment being limited to a payment of 10 per cent of the estimated cost of the real estate project and any person in custody in connection with that offence shall be set free.

• The state law mandates developers to follow the guidance value decided by authorities as the base price to estimate project costs.

• For broker registration, the fee in case of an individual applicant is Rs 25,000 and Rs 2 lakh for an applicant (being) other than an individual. In comparison, property brokers in states such as Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh will have to pay only Rs 10,000 for registration.

The rules regarding depositing 70 per cent of the amount realised from the buyers in a separate account and disclosure of the size of the apartment based on carpet area remains intact.

For all ongoing projects, these are the details that a developer will have to furnish:

• The original sanctioned plan, the layout plan and specifications, and the subsequent modifications.

• The amount collected from buyers, and the amount used for development, and the balance money lying with the developer.

• Status of the project. A developer will have to declare the extent of development carried out at the time of applying, and the extent of the work that is pending. All this information will have to be certified by practicing engineers, architects and chartered accountants.

• The developer will have to make a declaration “stating that the promoter shall not discriminate against any allottee at the time of allotment of any apartment, plot or a building, as the case may be”, says the law.

The provisions of the law will come into effect retrospectively i.e. May 1, 2017. 

According to government data, there were about 2,261 real estate companies active in Karnataka.