Lucknow
Take all reasonable precautions before buying your dream house or apartment on the outskirts of Lucknow.
The UP Real Estate RegulatoryAuthority (UPRERA) has identified 57 apartments and housing colonies that have been developed without requisite permission from local authorities and any investment in these projects is not safe, officials have warned.
Satellite images taken by the Remote Sensing Centre (RSC), which on the request of UPRERA is carrying out a survey, have helped identify these rogue projects. So far, the centre has completed 70% survey and identified the 57 along Faizabad, Sultanpur and Sitapur roads. Survey in remaining areas will be completed by the end of June.
The inspection was commissioned in March after two allottees of a housing project lodged a complaint regarding the registration money taken by a builder on Sitapur road. According to Section 13 of the RERA Act, a buyer has to pay 10% of the apartment/house value as registration money. The complainant claimed that the builder was charging 15% instead.
Chairman of UPRERA Rajive Shukla said they later came to know of more than 150 cases in which builders had asked for more registration money. “We also received complaints about builders disappearing after taking the allotment money. That is when we decided to conduct the survey,” he added.
Sources in UPRERA said developers of the 57 rogue projects would be served notices, asking them to seek registration from local authorities such as LDA or zila panchayat, and fullfill all fire safety norms. They will also be directed to return extra money if registration fee charged was more than the prescribed 10% of the apartment value.