What If You Fail To Do The Due Diligence?
Revolutionary changes have been made to make property investment safer in India. A homebuyer felt vulnerable in the past. He would have had to keep his fingers crossed till the entire transaction is complete. At every stage, this buyer would fear that something unpleasant might take place, shattering his dreams of home ownership. Reformatory laws such as the Real Estate (Regulation & Development) Act, 2016, would start an era where these negative sentiments will have no place — they were a major cause of the doom and gloom that India's real estate sector witnessed between 2014 and 2016. The buyer today is empowered with a solid legal backing. However, this does not amount to you taking the home-buying business any less seriously. Doing the “due diligence” as important today as it used to be in the past.
Prevention or cure?
If a property advisor or a developer tried to fool you in anyway, the Real Estate Regulatory Authority of your state would make sure justice is done. The culprit would be in for a jail time or have to pay a hefty penalty in case of any wrongdoings. Both will be responsible for their every word and deed, and will have to honour all the terms and conditions. This assurance gives you a lot of confidence. However, did you ask your property agent and the developer if they had a registration number? Under the provisions of the law, every real estate advisor and developer has to register himself with the authority to run business. In case you did not, it will be your fault, and the law would go only so far in protecting you. However, a more pertinent question begs an answer here ─ do we really want to take the trouble of knocking the doors of the law even if there is a dedicated body sitting just to listen to us or even if the dispute redressal process would be much faster? The answer is, you certainly would not, and the reasons for that are quite obvious.
No matter how fast the process goes, you will have to employ some amount of time if you get into a bad deal ─ from the filing of the complaint to receiving justice, it would certainly take some time. There would be an equal amount of money and resources that would be spent during the process. But, most of all, it would be the emotional toll that would make the worst impact.
Buying a house is like making a dream come true. You would want it to be a happy experience. In case things go wrong because due care was not taken to finalise a deal, it may cause you a lot of mental and emotional stress. Even if the guilty is booked, you are always going to rue the fact that things went bad for you once. Because we would not like to be in a situation such as that, here is what must be done to guard our interests as a buyer:
- Gain as much knowledge as you can about your property advisor and developer. Make sure they both have their RERA registration numbers. This should be the very criterion to choose agents and developers in the RERA regime.
- You broadly know the rules prescribed in the new law. Make sure you do not make any mistakes. Do note here that a buyer is also responsible for his actions, and will have to face consequences in case he is found guilty.
- Not all of us have the time and the bandwidth to grasp all the nitty-gritty provided in the law. Always seek legal assistance when finalising a property deal. This will mitigate the chances of things turning bad in a big way.