In a major step forward for consumer protection and ease of doing business for the real estate industry, the Gujarat Real Estate Regulatory Authority (GujRERA) has introduced a comprehensive Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), the goal of which is to facilitate a smooth and well-structured grievance redressal system.
The newly formed SOP has a digital-first approach, based on GujRERA’s existing online complaint management system. With clear-defined steps and timeframes, and assignation of responsibilities, this new formation is expected to eliminate time constraints, generally existing within this particular task of resolving property-buyers, developers, and other disputations.
According to the changed process, property buyers are able to file complaints online from the convenience of their homes through the GujRERA portal. Although the facility of making complaints offline is also available, the government has clearly stated that making complaints online will be promoted so that complaints can be processed faster and tracked easily. After an online complaint has been filed, the person has to submit the hard copy of the complaint form to the RERA office within seven days, as published by the official release of the state government.
To further eliminate procedural bottlenecks, it is mandatory, under GujRERA, that all complainants are required to attach all necessary documents with filing of the complaint itself. The documents that need to be submitted include documents related to payments, agreements, correspondences, and information related to the grievance/event in issue. It is believed that this measure will help eliminate adjournments that occur because of incomplete documents.
The final important aspect of the SOP is its inclusion of the secretary of RERA in reviewing complaints at an early stage. By incorporating review at the secretary level, GujRERA ensures early assessment of complaints and ensures that there are no bottlenecks in initiating actions against the realtor. This is expected to help in increasing accountability in dealing with complaints.
The GujRERA dashboard has been identified as the monitoring hub for the progress of all cases. Critical updates, such as hearings, notices, orders, and final judgments, would all be loaded electronically. After the issuance of the first notice, all parties, including complainants and respondents, would be mandated to check the dashboard for updates rather than depending on physical communications.
As noted by officials, the aim of this change in their method of communication to be more digital is to make this process more transparent and predictable for the grievance redressal mechanism. Additionally, they depend less on manual follow-up processes that may lead to ambiguity in meeting deadlines.
The decision was appreciated by industry analysts and consumer protection advocates who said that faster dispute resolution will boost the confidence of consumers in Gujarat’s real estate market. Time-bound resolution of consumer complaints forms an essential plank of the Real Estate (Regulation & Development) Act, and its effective execution at the state level is very important in increasing consumer confidence in real estate developers.
The launch of the SOP has made it clear that GujRERA is committed to improving the efficiency of regulations, as well as implementing technology to overcome the existing problems in the sector. It is anticipated that the above initiative will not only curb the pendency rate but also set the benchmark for other states to develop their RERA at the national level.
Image- gujrera.gujarat.gov.in
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