The parliament on Wednesday passed a bill provisioning for punishment of real estate developers for wrongdoings and protection of the interests of buyers and landowners.
The house passed the Real Estate Development and Management Bill 2009, prepared keeping an ordinance concerned promulgated by the immediate-past interim regime, which ceased to have effect on February 25 for not being ratified in the parliament by the stipulated time.
The state minister for housing and public works, Abdul Mannan Khan, moved the bill in the house with provisions for legal action in case of violation of the law.
According to a provision in the bill, all real estate developers need to be registered with the authorities concerned and an unregistered developer will be imprisoned for two years or fined Tk 10 lakh for advertising any property development project on the media.
A developer will be jailed for two years or fined Tk 10 lakh for launching development works without the permission of appropriate authorities.
If a developer fails to keep the promise of providing utility facilities such as water, electricity, gas, sewerage, waste management and fire fighting systems for the developed plots or apartments in line with its prospectus, it will be fined Tk 5 lakh or jailed for a year for failing to pay the fine.
Another provision in the bill says a developer will be imprisoned for three years or fined Tk 20 lakh or both for constructing buildings in violation of the approved design.
If a developer does not comply with the agreement with landowners or buyers or keeps the construction work unfinished and does not give compensation for this, it will be considered cheating, according to the bill. The developer might be imprisoned for a maximum of two years or fined Tk 20 lakh or both for cheating.
A landowner will also be imprisoned for two years or fined Tk 10 lakh or both for failing to hand over the plot to a developer, according to the agreement between the two sides.
The government-run real estate development and management activities are, however, kept out of the purview of the bill.
It will, however, be applicable to real estate development and management activities run under the public-private partnership.
The offences under this bill will be compoundable, non-cognizable and bailable.
