Real estate developers will now have to define carpet area when making commercial deals after the Monopolies & Restrictive Trade Practices Commission (MRTPC) came down heavily on realty major DLF for ?suppressing norms? while fixing the actual covered area.
In a far-reaching judgement that will bring clarity to deals in the real estate sector, MRTPC said carpet area calculation should be made clear while negotiating agreements with customers. The judgement will have serious ramifications on sale contracts formulated by developers as most developers do not explain how carpet area is calculated.
?In such a situation, when norms are not defined statutorily, it was all the more necessary for the respondent to define carpet area in terms of the norms understood by it and not to keep the same with itself to surprise the complainant,? said the MRTPC bench comprising chairman OP Dwivedi and member MMK Sardana while disposing a petition against DLF.
Accusing the company of ?unfair trade practice? by not making its stand clear from the beginning and including the thickness of walls while fixing carpet area later, MRTPC said, ?suppressionof the norms by it in calculating carpet area thus has a flavour of misrepresentation in respect of the core expectation and useable areas available to complainant.?
Pradeep Jain, chairman, Parsvnath Developers, admitted that the practice of clearly defining super and carpet area in contracts had not picked up in India. Adds Sanjay Kackar, COO, AEZ Group, ?It is all a question of ethics and reputation, something that says a lot about the transparent methods that a developer adopts.?
For more than two decades now, builders have been taking advantage of a marketing ploy euphemistically called ?super built-up? area that makes unsuspecting flat purchasers pay for the use of common facilities.