Legal rights transfer under RERA 

The title of any property & transfer the ownership must be transferred from one buyer to another after referring to the ‘chain of transfer’ of that property which may have happened in the past. Under the legal arena, every buyer is a bona-fide buyer if the buyer has properly done its checks and reviews and has paid the agreed consideration price of the same in legal mode of payment.

Section 17 of the Real Estate Regulatory Authority Act, 2016 provides for transfer of Title of the property which states as follows:

“the promoter shall execute a registered conveyance deed in favour of the allottee along with the undivided proportionate title in the common areas to the association of the allottees or the competent authority, as the case may be, and hand over the physical possession of the plot, apartment of building, as the case may be, to the allottees and the common areas to the association of the allottees or the competent authority, as the case may be, in a real estate project, and the other title documents pertaining thereto within specified period as per sanctioned plans as provided under the local laws”.

 The Local Laws means the earlier rules or regulations which were in place in that particular local area, having the same subject matter, and have not been discontinued even after enactment of the Real Estate Regulatory Act, 2016.

Within specified period means, if there are no Local laws in existence,

• In case of a project with Single building, the conveyance deed will be executed in favour of the allottee within 03 (three) months from the date of Occupancy certificate or if full consideration is paid by 51% of the total allottees, whichever is earlier.
• In case of a larger layout consisting of more than one buildings, in relation to transfer  of title of a building, only if no period for transfer of such title to the legal entity of the allottees is agreed upon, the Promoter must execute the conveyance of the structure of that building within either

(i) one month from the date on which the Co-operative society or the company is registered or association of the allottees is duly constituted ‘or’

(ii) within three months from the date of issuance of Occupancy Certificate, whichever is earlier.

 If the promoter fails to complete or is unable to give possession of the property in accordance with the terms and conditions of the Sale agreement or due to cancellation of registration which led to discontinuance of his business as a developer under this Act or for any other reason, he shall be liable to return the amount received by him in respect of that property, with interest at such rate as may be prescribed in this behalf including compensation in the manner as provided under this Act. Where an allottee does not intend to withdraw, he shall be paid, by the promoter, interest for every month of delay, till the handing over of the property, at such rate as may be prescribed.

Real Estate Regulatory Authority has also mandated all developers to take ‘Title Insurance’ to cover all financial losses, legal expenses and other costs which may be suffered due to transfer of wrong title of the property in the chain of transfers. This will ultimately protect the home-buyers from getting the wrong and defective title from the ‘chain of transfer’ of the property and huge expenses and cost in the hands of the last buyer can be waived off.