Consumer bodies seek crackdown on real estate frauds in Telangana

Consumer activists urged the Telangana government to curb rising real estate frauds, strengthen safeguards, and ensure compensation for buyers. They opposed reducing mandatory security deposits and demanded blacklisting of firms that failed to pay penalties imposed by TGRERA

Hanamkonda: The Southern States Consumer Coordination Committee president Dr Pallepadu Damodar demanded that the State government and officials concerned take immediate action to check real estate frauds that continue to be on the rise.

Speaking at a meeting held in Hyderabad on Tuesday, he observed that while the Telangana Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) was prompt in responding to real estate frauds and imposing penalties, consumers were still not receiving adequate compensation for their losses. He asserted that merely imposing penalties does not resolve the issue, rather, it was essential to ensure that proper permissions were granted before the construction of apartment complexes begins. Strict action must be taken against real estate firms that publish fraudulent advertisements, Dr. Damodar demanded.

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Consumer Confederation of India (CCI) national general secretary Sambaraju Chakrapani noted that under the HMDA Act of 2008, it was mandatory to mortgage 15 percent of the property as a security deposit with the government during apartment construction. He pointed out that subsequent amendments reduced the security deposit requirement from 15 percent to 10 percent and currently, efforts were underway to further reduce the 10 percent security deposit to just 5 percent.

Chakrapani argued that a 5 percent property security deposit would primarily benefit the real estate sector while causing severe financial loss to the consumer. Consequently, he stated that consumer associations were registering their protest against such amendments.

CCI vice president AV Rao, secretary Ande Sridhar Reddy and joint secretary S Narasimha Reddy demanded that approximately 64 real estate firms, which failed to pay the fines imposed by the TGRERA to date, should be blacklisted.