Delayed possession of property to attract 10% penalty

If property builders delay the possession of properties, buyers would be entitled to get interest on the invested amount for the delay period.

This rate of interest has been decided at 10% by the Real Estate Regulatory Authority's (RERA).

As against rumours doing rounds, developers can still advertise and market their existing projects, said regulators and officials of MP, Punjab, Haryana and Delhi. They added that builders need to apply for registration for ongoing projects only by July 31.

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However, projects that don’t apply for registration by July 31 will not be allowed to advertise.

"So far, 14 states and UTs have implemented this law. There are 14 more states which are in process of notifying the rules. We hope that they will do it soon," said Rajiv Ranjan Mishra, Joint Secretary of Housing Ministry.

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As per Anthony de Sa, Chairman of Madhya Pradesh RERA, delayed ongoing housing projects will be registered with RERA only if the developer agrees to pay the buyer interest at the authority's prescribed rate. This rate decided by RERA is 2 percentage points above SBI's MCLR (marginal cost of fund based lending rate) of 8%.

Buyers who delay payment of their dues will also have to pay the same interest at 10% and not the penal rates of 12% to 18% as mentioned in their sales agreement.

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