Carpet Area vs Super Built-Up: What RERA Actually Requires

The definition

Section 2(k) of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 defines carpet area as the net usable floor area of an apartment, excluding the area covered by the external walls, areas under services shafts, exclusive balcony or verandah area and exclusive open terrace area, but including the area covered by the internal partition walls of the apartment.

That is a precise definition, and its precision is the point. Before it, every developer used its own basis, and comparing two projects meant comparing two different things.

What super built-up was

Super built-up area typically took the carpet area, added the thickness of walls, added the balcony, and then added a proportionate share of common areas such as lobbies, staircases, lifts and sometimes amenities. The proportion added, often called the loading, varied between developers and was rarely disclosed.

The practical effect was that a flat sold as 1,200 square feet might have perhaps 800 square feet of usable space, and the buyer had no way to know without asking a question most did not know to ask. Two projects quoting the same rate per square foot could differ substantially in what you actually got.

What to check in your agreement

• Whether carpet area is stated as a specific figure, in the agreement rather than only in a brochure.
• Whether the price is expressed by reference to carpet area or to some other basis.
• Whether balcony, terrace and parking are dealt with separately and priced separately.
• Whether the agreement states the common areas and your share in them.
• Whether there is a variation clause permitting the area to change, and by how much, with what price adjustment.

The variation clause

Most agreements permit some tolerance between the stated carpet area and the area on completion, because construction is not exact. A small permitted variation with a corresponding price adjustment in both directions is reasonable.

What is worth examining is a wide tolerance, a tolerance that operates only in the builder favour, or a clause permitting a reduction in area without a refund. Those are the versions where an ostensibly technical clause carries real money.

If the brochure and the agreement differ

Brochures, sample flats and sales conversations frequently describe a larger number than the agreement. Section 12 of RERA addresses the position where a person makes an advance or deposit on the basis of information contained in an advertisement or prospectus that proves incorrect.

The practical advice is simpler than the legal question: keep the brochure, keep the price sheet, keep the emails. Where what you were shown differs from what you signed, contemporaneous material is what makes the difference between an assertion and a case.