Government will establish a group to develop a sample builder-buyer agreement: Official

MUMBAI: In order to, among other things, speed up the home-buying process and protect customers from potential abuses, the government has decided to organise a committee to work on a model buyer agreement, a top government official declared on Tuesday.

According to Consumer Affairs Ministry Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh, the committee, which will include representatives from the Ministry of Consumer Affairs as well as judges, national and state consumer commissions, Within the following three months, it is projected that numerous consumer organisations and solicitors will be founded.

The official had previously addressed at a round table event on “How to Thoroughly Redress the Grievances Pertaining to Real Estate Sector,” which was organized in the city by the Department of Consumer Affairs in partnership with the Government of Maharashtra.

If the agreement between a builder and a buyer is standardized and regularity is established, the issue (conflict between the home buyers and the developer) may be somewhat alleviated.

In order to partially fix the issue, there should be a singular document that is relevant throughout the whole nation, according to Singh.

Thus, said Singh, “We chose to set up a committee and a sample contract between the buyer and the seller, who is the builder.”

He added, “We will, of course, build this model agreement in conjunction with all parties (and) then we will present it to the supreme court and send it to all the states.

The Supreme Court has also ordered that there be a model agreement for the entire nation, according to e, who also noted that several states already have one in place.

Over 5.5 lakh complaints are currently outstanding in the nation’s consumer courts, with over 54,000 of those claims being specifically related to the housing industry, according to Singh.

According to the ministry, the backlog of cases emphasizes the value of swift justice and expediting the procedure for homebuyers.

The main concerns for homebuyers were determined to be the time it took to transfer ownership of the property, the lack of reimbursement for this delay, biassed, unfair builder-buyer contracts, amenities not being provided in accordance with the agreements, and misleading advertising by developers and influencers to draw in customers.

According to Singh, the consumer affairs department has also scheduled a conference with the top 50 influencers for Wednesday in Mumbai to examine the problem of deceptive advertising.

Some of the key recommendations made during the conference, according to the ministry, included sending the draught agreement to buyers before execution, emphasizing the permissions and sanctions received from competent authorities on the first page of the agreement, and prohibiting builders from establishing projects before obtaining all required permissions and sanctions.