Greater Noida sets up dedicated cell to help homebuyers

The Greater Noida authority Wednesday said it has set up a dedicated cell that will assist homebuyers in getting details about the legality of a housing project.

The cell has been set up after the authority realised that developers are cheating homebuyers by launching unauthorised housing projects in several villages, particularly in Shahberi.

On July 17, 2018, twin buildings had collapsed in Shahberi village in Greater Noida, killing nine persons and injuring several others. This incident exposed how the builders are cheating homebuyers by selling flats in illegal and unsafe buildings.

As per the building by-laws, 2010, a builder cannot sell flats in a housing project before (s)he gets the building layout map approved. Also, the builder cannot offer possession of the flats without obtaining an occupancy certificate (OC).

“If the builder is selling flats without a map approval or without the OC, the authority will act because it is illegal to do so,” another official in the Greater Noida authority said.

As per an estimate made by the Greater Noida authority, there are thousands of flats, which have been sold by the developers in unauthorised housing complexes in Shahberi, Bisrakh, Patwari, Lakhnavali and Tugalpur, among other villages.

When the authority tried to seal or demolish these unauthorised buildings, homebuyers, who have bought flats and shifted into them, staged protests against the UP government and the Greater Noida authority. The authority started demolishing such houses on the instructions of the Uttar Pradesh government. But they are facing stiff protests from homebuyers, who say that they are not at fault as authorities never stopped these illegal constructions.

“We have set up this cell so that a flat buyer, who wants to enquire about a particular housing project, can easily get help from our staff. The objective is that homebuyers are not lured by the developers into buying property in their illegal housing projects. The homebuyers will submit details about a particular housing project and then the authority will reply whether it is legal or illegal in three working days,” Narendra Bhooshan, chief executive officer of the Greater Noida authority, said.

The authority has set up a counter on the ground floor of its main administrative building in Knowledge Park-5 to assist homebuyers. Buyers also can get the details on telephone numbers — 0120-2336046, 47, 48, 49.

“Apart from that, buyers can also get the desired details from the UP-Rera website that has information about sanctioned housing projects,” Bhooshan said.