The Tamil Nadu Real Estate Regulatory Authority has given a five-month extension for completion of registered projects, in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic and consequential force majeure.
“All registrations which are valid as on February 1 are extended automatically up to June 30. The validity of the registration will also be coterminous with revised completion date,” the Authority said in a circular.
The time limit of all the other statuary compliances in accordance with the Act, which are due in March and June, are extended up to September 2020.
“We had sought an extension for six months and they have given five months. Most of the construction workers are taken care at the project sites. Once the lockdown is lifted, we hope to resume operations at the earliest,” S Sridharan, chairman-CREDAI Tamil Nadu, said.
K. Vaitheeswaran, advocate and tax consultant pointed out the builder’s responsibility to the home buyer depends on the terms of the contract entered between them. “It is advisable for the Real Estate developer to examine the contracts and explore the possibility of sending out a notice to the customers intimating them about the impossibility of performance due to a force majeure event. It is pertinent to mention that most contracts are structured in a manner that require such intimations to be sent in order to validly invoke the force majeure clause,” he added.