Home Buyers and Three Fold Protection Shield of Law

Abstract

The Real Estate sector was largely unregulated. Earlier, home buyers who pooled all their resources and invested in property were being arm twisted by the builders and were being taken for a big ride. Delay in completion of construction was a common phenomenon. There was hardly any legal protection to a home buyer as he had to move civil courts for redressal of his grievances which involved heavy expenses and time. Thereafter, Consumer Protection Act, 1986 came to be enacted which provided him with some solace but the same was not inexpensive and speedy nor was it specific to the real estate sector. However, there is a complete change in the scenario. The law has been bolstered in favour of home buyers and now they could get a speedy justice. It has come in the form of series of measures of the Government like enactment of Real Estate (Regulation and Development), 2016, (RERA), Supreme Court's direction, in the case of Jaypee Infrastructure Ltd. allowing the representative of allottees of flats to be part of the Committee of Creditors under newly enacted Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 and subsequent amendments to the Code including "Home Buyers" as Financial Creditors. The RERA is very stringent, provided safeguards to the buyer of home. The promoter/builder will be punished for violation of the provisions of the Act. It is clarified by the Supreme Court that a consumer could get his grievance redressed through any of the enactments, be it Consumer Protection Act, 1986, RERA, 2016 or Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016. The Home Buyer has three laws in his arsenal.