The Noida Authority Board has approved a policy proposal for the structural audit of high-rise buildings in the city. The policy defines the roles and responsibilities of the builder as well as the residents’ association in relation to the repair of structures, if they are found to be defective during the audit.
The decision was taken during the 207th meeting of the Noida Authority Board of Directors which was held at its Sector 6 office. The meeting was chaired by the Commissioner for Infrastructure and Industrial Development of the Noida Authority. ‘Uttar Pradesh and Chairman of Noida Authority, Arvind Kumar in the presence of Chief Executive Officer of Noida Authority, Ritu Maheshwari.
Although the policy has been approved by the board, it would take about a week to implement due to local red tape, a senior official said.
There are around 100 high-rise projects in Noida, many of which have multiple towers, the official added. With regard to the structural audit of multi-storey buildings located in the authority area, the statement reads: “the structural policy has been prepared by the authority of Noida at the request of apartment buyers and of the AOA (Apartment Owners Association), in which the Structural Audit Policy has been approved by the Board of Authority with partial modifications”.
“According to this policy, the structural audit report of IIT or NIT or expert institutions will be submitted by the developer before the issuance of the partial or full occupancy certificate,” according to the statement.
He said that even after the issuance of a certificate of partial or full occupancy, in any project, if 25% or more of the beneficiaries of the AOA or the tower complain of structural defects, the committee constituted at the level of the authority will review the complaint and decide whether the defect is minor or falls under the major category.
“For major category structural defects, a structural audit will be carried out by expert institutions. Under the Apartment Ownership Act, it is the responsibility of the builder to remove the structural defects within two years,” a- he declared.
“According to the RERA law, the responsibility for the elimination of construction defects rests with the builder for five years and after five years with AOA.
This period will be calculated after the issuance of the certificate of occupancy of the entire program”, according to the press release.
At present, it has been decided by the Council that if the structural audit report is negative, the structural defects will be removed by the builder within five years from the date of issue of the occupation, a he declared.
In cases of a period of two to five years, the authority will inform the Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) to obtain the measures taken by the builder to rectify the defects found after having carried out the audit by the approved agency, he added.
