In an important order, the Gujarat Real Estate Appellate Tribunal has said that if a group of residents wants to file a complaint against a builder with the Gujarat Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA), the group is required to be a registered association first.
In absence of registration of association, the residents or allottees of the houses can file complaints in individual capacity or through power of attorney. The tribunal’s verdict has come as a warning for the residents of a newly constructed housing scheme that they should insist the builder to form and register the association as soon as possible so that they can formally file a complaint with RERA about the project.
In this case, some twenty allottees of a residential scheme in Vadodara formed an association – Crystal Yaghnapurush Residential and Owners’ Association. It was not a registered association. It filed a complaint against the builder of the scheme, Manish Patel, about incomplete project and that the clubhouse and various facilities were not completed.
On November 5, RERA passed an interim order asking the builder to complete the project in two months by increasing the manpower at the site. RERA gave notice to complete pending work at the earliest or provide the compensation to the residents.
The builder challenged the order before the tribunal and his advocate Vishal Dave submitted that the association is not a registered one. According to Section 11(4)(e) of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act 2016, the promoter should enable the formation of an association or society or cooperative society of the allottees, or a federation of the same. Without a registered association, RERA cannot entertain the complaint of a group.
The tribunal accepted the argument and said that the complaint was not maintainable. The tribunal further said that the complaint must not be allowed to fail due to technical grounds, and it gave the group time till December 31 to amend the complaint by permitting each of the members to file a complaint in an individual capacity.
