The partial collapse of a tower at Chintels Paradiso housing project in Gurugram, Haryana has exposed serious lapses in the working of both development authorities and real estate regulators in the state under the realty law RERA, according to Forum For People’s Collective Efforts (FPCE).
FPCE, an apex body for home buyers, has demanded that development authorities and regulators under RERA should monitor the construction quality from the beginning of a project to fulfil their responsibilities of protecting the interest of home buyers.
Two people had died in the partial building collapse incident that took place in Chinrels Paradiso on February 10. In another case, a housing society in Gurugram comprising over 700 flats, constructed by state-owned NBCC Ltd, will be demolished after it was declared unsafe for habitation.
“Home buyers spend their hard earned savings to buy house for life but in this case the collapse happened within four years of possession. This has exposed the serious lapse on the working of both the development authorities and also the RERA authorities,” FPCE President Abhay Upadhyay told PTI on Tuesday.
Real estate developers are definitely to be blamed for poor construction quality, but the onus also falls on these authorities, he added.
Upadhyay pointed out that many such cases have been witnessed in the last few years where chunks from roof have fallen but still no quality check measures were being undertaken by development authorities or by RERA authorities either during construction period or before possession is being offered.
“Issue of Occupation Certificate (OC) is now merely a formality rather than actual physical inspection, which is mostly obtained through illegal means by builders. Sadly, the RERA authorities merely rubber stamp such certificates which certainly does not absolve them from their prime responsibility to protect the interest of home buyers,” he alleged.
The FPCE President demanded that regulatory authorities under RERA should hire in-house technical team to check quality of construction.
“Both development and RERA authorities should monitor the construction quality from the beginning of the project,” Upadhyay said.
G Mohanty, President of Apartment Owners Association, NBCC Green View, Gurugram, blamed NBCC for poor construction.
“They have admitted to doing poor construction and further ignoring our repeated pleas since last four years for taking measures to rectify the defects. At this stage they shouldn’t be allowed to take advantage of their own faults by using the district administration to throw us out of our homes and taking possession of the project,” he said.
“Our demand is that NBCC should refund the entire amount homeowners have paid with 15 per cent interest, registration charges and court fees paid, cost incurred on interior work as well as Rs 25 lakh compensation for subjecting home buyers to harassment and mental agony,” Mohanty said.
Vipin Tyagi, resident of Jaypee Aman project in Noida, requested the government and all departments concerned to conduct the structural audit of all the towers of Jaypee Aman society.
“After the recent incident of building collapse in Gurugram society, resident of Jaypee Aman, Sector 151 Noida are among the worried home buyers. This is because of the deteriorating and neglected condition of towers within the society,” Tyagi added.
Nitin Prabhakar Shingote, Founder of startup Propcheckup, advised home buyers to do self visual inspection of the home or hire a home inspection company that does a thorough visual check of the flat for all kinds of defects.
“We check for defects in windows, electricals, plumbing, wall and ceilings, etc. If we notice larger cracks and other issues, we bring in structural auditors to evaluate the buildings structural stability. These structural auditors perform a series of tests to check the quality of the concrete and the quality of steel,” he added.
