NOIDA: The Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority (GNIDA) has decided to temporarily waive penalties for homebuyers who could not execute registry of their flats for developers’ failure to clear dues even after being issued part-occupancy certificates.
So, homebuyers will now have six months from July 22 to complete the registries. The move is expected to benefit around 40,000 flat buyers across 60 projects.
In 2018 too, GNIDA had allowed buyers to execute registries without any penalties. While the move helped many flat buyers, those whose developers had not cleared dues with the Authority were not allowed to complete the process then.
As the year-long window closed, these buyers were imposed a hefty fine — Rs 50 a day for flats under 100sqm and Rs 100 a day for larger houses.
Officials said the 2018 waiver was also aimed at curbing the practice of selling unregistered flats. “In many cases, people were found to have deliberately not registered their flats and sold them at higher rates when the market picked up, earning a good profit. Since they did not intend to live in them, they did not register their flats but sold them,” an official said.
But tangles started to ease somewhat when the state govt came out with its rehabilitation policy for stalled projects in Dec last year.
In Greater Noida, the builders of over 60 projects opted for a zero-period waiver on interest and penalties incurred during two years of the pandemic and paid 25% advance of their recalculated dues.
“The buyers of these projects now had the option of registering their flats again. But few came forward because each of them had run up penalties worth Rs 2 lakh-2.5 lakh since 2018,” said Saumya Srivastava, an OSD at the Authority.
Earlier this year, an association of homebuyers urged GNIDA to waive the penalties imposed on homebuyers. The Authority initiated talks at its board meeting on June 15 and decided to waive the fines for six months.
Abhishek Kumar, president of the Noida Extension Flat Owners’ Welfare Association (NEFOWA), called the penalties “unreasonable”, pointing out that these buyers had already paid stamp duty while investing in their flats years ago.
“The penalties imposed by Greater Noida Authority were unfair. These buyers are anyway distressed at not being able to register their flats. They are not at fault if the developer has failed to clear the dues,” he added.
Homebuyers argued that the fines were an added financial burden, especially when they had paid for stamp duty and their projects had received part-OCs.
“No such fines exist in neighbouring Noida,” a buyer pointed out. Builders also backed the move.
Nikhil Hawelia, the managing director of Hawelia Group, said, “This penalty waiver is a major relief for homebuyers whose developers have opted for the govt’s rehabilitation package. But there are many developers who cleared their dues irrespective of the govt deal. The buyers in such projects should also be eligible for this relief.”
