RERA for Karnataka is an open, public group, devoted to the welfare of home-owners of apartments, villas or plots.

We seek to improve the legal framework and its implementation, by working for quick and proper implementation of RERA and reforms in existing laws. We are also seeking reforms in the procedures and policies of agencies, such as KSPCB, BWSSB, BESCOM, BBMP, BDA etc to make the rules fair and more practical to comply with.

Objectives

1. To work for speedy and effective implementation of the RERA in the state of Karnataka.
2. To drive reforms in various acts related to apartment ownership in Karnataka and to seek resolution of any conflicts/confusion resulting from RERA coming into effect.
3. To work with Government for effective implementation of various acts and rules affecting home buyers
4. To educate home buyers on their rights and responsibilities, to ensure better legal compliance
5. To work with developer groups such as CREDAI to develop best practices that protect the interests of both developers as well as home buyers.
6. To serve as a platform to communicate and seek reforms in current rules and policies of agencies such as BBMP, BDA, BESCOM, BWSSB, KSPCB, BMRDA, etc. that affect Home buyers.

Achievements so far

We have conducted extensive survey of apartments across Bengaluru to understand the common issues faced by the Home-owners and about 170 specific issues have been compiled.

Our Google Group provides online help for home buyers queries and their problems, as follows:

• Publishing articles in FAQ format to address these issues, with citation from the relevant acts. Additional questions from Home Buyers are answered. (KAOA, KOFA, Registration Act, Indian Contracts Act, KSRA, etc.)
• Publishing articles on how various laws and agencies are supposed to protect the Home Buyers  (This enables them to protect themselves)
• Publishing articles about legal gaps that lead to miseries for the home buyers, and suggested reforms in specific acts.
• Conducting frequent seminars for Home Buyers to enhance their knowledge and awareness on their Rights, RERA Bill, Occupancy Certificate, Khata, etc.,

Presently, the Home buyers suffer from many shocking range of problems due to lacunae in the available enactments along with the issues of delay in possession, No Occupancy Certificate, No committed amenities, Non formation of legally valid association etc.

The following list is just a small sample, which gives a rough idea of the scale and impact of these issues:

• 95% of the developers never submit the property to KAOA, and yet the sale deed “sells” and apartment and UDS. But without a DoD, such Sale Deed is null and void; and the promised property is NOT transferred to the buyer!
• First and foremost to stop registration of Owners association under Society’s Act 1960, as this KSRA does not applicable to the management of joined property (Apartment) and more vulnerable is any 7 adults’ members can form an association under this KSRA. Further under KSRA, the membership is voluntary and thus you cannot force anyone to become Members.
• Agencies like KSPCB, BWSSB, BBMP and BESCOM have drafted lopsided policies that treat Home Buyers /apartments unfairly. As a result, they suffer from the following issues:
  • Apartments are burdened with much higher fees/charges (as compared to independent houses / spacious bungalows!) Despite that, they still suffer from severe water shortages, overflowing sewage and piled up garbage. Worse, thanks to unfair policies, there is no solution for their woes.
  • Due to unfair policies of agencies such as KSPCB, BWSSB, BBMP and BESCOM, the apartment associations find themselves having to comply with several rules specifically written for these communities. The cost of compliance and legal consequences for non-compliance puts a large financial burden as well as compliance risk (potential for office bearers being sent to jail) on apartment residents and their management committees. The KSPCB hold the MCs responsible for their own dereliction of duty, and slap notices (sometimes extra-legal).Thus the hapless MC members are under constant threat of imprisonment.
• In the BMRDA jurisdictional areas, the situation is worse, as there is no consistent regulation. For some strange reason, neither the BDA regulations nor the Bangalore Building Bye-laws are applied to this area.

We have compiled these issues meticulously after extensive researches and have concrete and constructive suggestions for resolution.

We need support from home buyers, apartment owners association to take this forward, and bring a mass resolution of these problems and for this we are intended to form a Registered Organisation very shortly, with following objectives :

1. To facilitate mass-resolution of common issues of apartment / layout / plot owners with the developers and various government authorities.
2. To drive reforms in various acts and government policies related to apartments / layouts / plotted communities.
3. To drive collective protective measures according to Real Estate Regulatory Authority framework, for the members/ associations of Home Buyers.
4. To serve as a common platform for voicing the apartment ? Layout / Plot owners’ needs and wants in Karnataka–Bangalore.
5. To spread Legal awareness among members/ Home Buyers associations, to promote compliance on Real Estate related acts and  statutory.
6. To promote proactively collaborative practices with Government agencies and developers.
7. To release press statement , media statement about the member associations experience with the developers / government agencies.
8. To promote healthy community atmosphere among the members.

We wish all home buyers and apartment owners associations to subscribe themselves for the membership and join our movement.