HRERA directs builders to pay assured returns to over 10,000 property buyers so far: K K Khandelwal

GURUGRAM: April 25, 2022. Haryana Real Estate Regulatory Authority (HARERA) has so far disposed of over 10,000 cases related to the failure of the private sector developers in giving assured returns to their allottees, or property buyers. In its order, HARERA has directed the builders to pay promised assured returns, which they promised to pay the property buyers in the form of the lease amount.

Under the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016, the Haryana Government had notified the Haryana Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Rules, 2017, which came into force on July 28, 2017.

This was disclosed by Dr. KK Khandelwal, Chairman, Haryana Real Estate Regulatory Authority (HARERA) while launching a housing project, SHF Homes under Deen Dayal Awaas Yojna in Gurugram on Sunday evening.
Dr. Khandelwal also praised Ms. Flora Rao for developing state of art infrastructure project and taking big leap of empowerment in a male dominated industry of real estate while applauding the fact that 70 percent of the work has already been done by the developer at time of launch.

“We have disposed of about 10,000 cases of assured returns to the allottees. We maintained that the assured returns component was the main part of the buyers-sellers agreement, and issued related orders to the builders directing them to pay the pending dues. It happened in many cases that the buyers were asked to pay the entire value of the unit and despite that, the project did not come up on the ground and hence assured returns were never paid. Or in some cases, the developers paid assured returns for a few months but discontinued it after some time,” said Dr. Khandelwal.

However, despite having lost the case, many developers are yet to honour these orders, and they are yet to pay the dues to the property buyers.

“Still, there are some builders who are hesitating to adhere to the orders, and but not for a long time they would be able to dodge these orders and will have to honour the same and return the dues to the gullible allottees sometime or the others,” said the HRERA chairman.

On this occasion, Dr. Khandelwal unveiled a housing project under Deen Dayal Awaas Yojna in Gurugram by the name of SHF Homes by SHF SQUARE which is coming up in Farrukhnagar, Gurgaon West.

While questioning the issue of HRERA being toothless authority, Dr. Khandelwal clarified it was toothless only for the builders who did not come under the RERA ambit.

“And those who are under our ambit, we make sure for them that they do timely completion and delivery of the projects, and they maintain proper quality. We make sure that no changes are made in the project specifications without involving the allottees, and they stick to the specifications of the layout plan. In all, we have disposed of about 8000 such matters related to the alleged violations on these fronts,” he added.

Present on the occasion VK Goyal, Member, HARERA was all praise for the developers of the SHF Homes project, SHF SQUARE who have already put in place the basic civic infrastructure including internal drainage, sewerage lines, ducting for the power cables, and other amenities in this 7-acres project.