Weak RERA enforcement leaves millions of Indian homebuyers stranded

The Forum For People's Collective Efforts (FPCE) released a comprehensive 192-page report on Wednesday highlighting systemic failures in RERA enforcement across Indian states on the tenth anniversary of the landmark legislation. The report, titled 'RERA Extension Abuse: How Regulatory Failure Is Betraying India's Homebuyers', documents how state-level regulatory authorities have fallen short in implementing the statute despite Parliament's intent to protect consumer interests in the real estate sector.

RERA was designed to regulate contractual relationships between homebuyers and promoters while ensuring transparency and accountability in the sector. However, according to FPCE's analysis, these objectives have remained largely unfulfilled due to enforcement lapses rather than legislative shortcomings. The advocacy group's president Abhay Upadhyay noted that while the statute itself remains robust, its practical application has weakened significantly across jurisdictions.

"RERA has not failed as a statute. Its enforcement has. And when enforcement weakens, even the strongest law fails in practice," Upadhyay stated, highlighting the disconnect between legislative intent and ground-level implementation. The report's findings underscore the need for state regulators to strengthen monitoring mechanisms and ensure timely action against non-compliant builders.

The persistence of project delays affecting millions of homebuyers suggests that state-level RERA authorities require greater resources, technical capacity, and institutional commitment to effectively regulate the sector and hold promoters accountable for contractual violations.