SC Asks Centre to Frame Model Builder-Buyer Agreement

The Supreme Court issued a notice to the Centre, asking it to frame model agreements for the builder-buyer and the agent-buyer deals to bring in more transparency in the real estate sector. The model agreements must conform to the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 to ensure protection for consumers, the apex court said. A uniform builder-buyer agreement is required to be framed by the Centre to protect interests of lakhs of homebuyers, a Supreme Court bench led by Justice DY Chandrachud said. The move followed a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by advocate and BJP leader Ashwini Upadhyay, seeking a direction to all states to enforce a model builder-buyer agreement and a model agent-buyer agreement and to take steps to avoid "mental, physical and financial injury" to customers. "Promoters, builders and agents use manifestly arbitrary one-sided agreements that do not place customers at an equal platform with them, which offends Articles 14, 15, 21 of the Constitution. There have been many cases of deliberate inordinate delays in handing over possession and customers lodge complaints but the police don't register FIRs, citing arbitrary clauses of the agreement," the PIL said. Issuing the notice on the Centre, Justice Chandrachud said: "This is an important issue on protection of buyers, often put on the back foot by clauses in agreements made by builders and a model BBA will keep builders in check.”  The housing ministry had earlier brought out a model builder-buyer agreement for residential projects, but no state had adopted it fully. Only Union Territories have notified the agreement in complete alignment with the central rules.