RERA authorities must check construction quality of projects: FPCE

Forum For People's Collective Efforts (FPCE), an apex body for house buyers, has insisted that development officials and regulators under Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) should observe the construction quality from the start of a project to meet their responsibilities of safeguarding the interest of home buyers. The partial collapse of a tower at Chintels Paradiso housing project in Gurugram, Haryana has exposed serious lapses in the working of both development officials and real estate regulators in the state under the realty law RERA, as per the Forum For People's Collective Efforts (FPCE). On February 10, two people had died in the partial building collapse incident that happened in Chinrels Paradiso. In another case, a housing society in Gurugram including more than 700 flats built by state-owned NBCC Ltd, will be razed after it was announced unsafe for habitation. On Tuesday, FPCE President Abhay Upadhyay told the media that homebuyers spend their hard-earned savings to purchase a house for life but in this case, the collapse took place within four years of control. It has exposed the serious lapse in the working of both the development officials and the RERA authorities. Real estate developers are certainly to be blamed for poor development quality, but the onus additionally falls on these authorities, he added. Upadhyay pointed out that many such cases have been noticed in the past few years where chunks from the roof have fallen but still, no quality check standards were being taken up by development authorities or by RERA authorities either during the construction period or before possession was being offered. Issue of Occupation Certificate (OC) is currently merely a formality rather than actual physical inspection, which is obtained via illegal means by builders. Image Source Also read: SC says RERA can delegate powers to listen to homebuyer complaints