Newsdetail

Noida Structural policy for high rises approved

By Rishabh Chamoli | 2022-12-01

Have you been worried about cracks on the walls or uneven floors? If yes, then there is a good news as the Authority has laid out a policy for the structural audit of high rise projects in Noida. The policy determines responsibilities of builder and residents association in case if the building is found defective during audit.

In a major move, the Noida Authority board has given a green signal to a structural policy proposal for the structural audit of multi storey buildings in the city in its 207th board meeting. If a structure is found to be defective during the audit, the policy has laid out roles and responsibilities on the part of the builder as well as the residents association for the repairs.

The board meeting was headed by Uttar Pradesh Infrastructure and Industrial Development Commissioner and Noida Authority chairman Arvind Kumar in the presence of Noida Authority Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Ritu Maheshwari.

The need for a structural policy
There are roughly around 100 high rise projects with multiple towers in the city. The Noida Authority prepared the structural policy on the demand of homebuyers and Apartment Owners Association (AOA). The Authority Board has approved the Structural Audit Policy with certain modifications.

What does the policy entail?
As per the policy, the developer will have to submit the structural audit report from an empanelled IIT or NIT or similar expert institutions before the issuance of partial or full Occupancy Certificate (OC).

However, it further stated that even after the OC has been issued, if a minimum of 25 percent allottees of AOA or the tower complain about the defects, the complaint will be examined by the committee formed at the authority level. It will categorise the complaint as of minor category or major category basis which further action will be taken.

As per Apartment Ownership Act, the responsibility rests on the builder to repair the defects within two years. However, according to the Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) Act, the builder is responsible for the removal of structural defects for five years and after five years, the AOA takes care of the same. This period is calculated after the issuance of OC of the entire scheme. In case the defects appear within three to five years, it will be the responsibility of the residents association to escalate it to RERA Authority to get resolution from the builder.

When will the policy be implemented?
The policy has been approved and it will take around a week for the structural policy to get implemented due to paper work at the local level.