The Registration Department here is asking details of (Real Estate Regulatory Authority) RERA registration to record documents of apartments, villas, and layouts.
“We got the government communication on Monday and it has come into effect immediately. However, we do not ask for RERA registration for second sales as RERA is only for the promoters,” an official said.
The Registration Department asks for approval from the Directorate of Town and Country Planning or the authority concerned and now it has included RERA registration, the official said.
According to a document writer here, the Department is not registering documents if the RERA registration is not there. This order has come without any prior announcement and hence affecting consumers as they were not prepared for it. Now, they need to postpone registrations and wait for the RERA registration.
K. Kathirmathiyon, secretary of Coimbatore Consumer Cause, said according to the instructions given by the Department, “Where the area of land proposed to be developed exceeds 500 sq.mt. or the number of apartments proposed to be developed exceeds eight, inclusive of all phases, registration with RERA is mandatory for registration of the documents.”
This instruction was implemented all of a sudden, without any prior information or notification to the public. Registration of documents can be refused only if notified u/s 22A of Registration Act – as documents opposed to public policy and registration of unapproved sites is specifically banned under Section 22A of the Act. But, there is no provision in the Registration Act for mandatory RERA Registration.
Mr. Kathirmathiyon said if the total land developed exceeded 500 sq. mt (5,380 sq.ft), registration under RERA was mandatory. It meant all layouts needed to be registered, since 5,380 sq. ft meant normally more than just two sites. When the sites in approved layout were purchased, it was a one-time transaction between the promoter and the buyer. Hence, there should not be a need to ask for RERA registration. And, to regularise unapproved sites, the government had the regularisation scheme, he pointed out.