Society not liable to homebuyers for developer’s default

Q. Our Society in Goregaon (West) is in the midst of redevelopment.

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The Developer appointed by the Society could not obtain necessary permissions from various concerned authorities despite the lapse of more than 2 years after executing the Development Agreement. The Society therefore terminated the Development Agreement with that Developer. The dispute arising from this termination was referred to Arbitration, where the award of the Arbitration is also in favour of the Society. The Society is now in the process of selecting and appointing a new Developer for redevelopment. However, the new intending Developers are not ready and willing to take the liabilities created by the erstwhile Developer with the buyers who had booked flats in our society's redevelopment project. Some experts say that as per Sec 15 of RERA, the intending developer is required to independently comply with all pending obligations of the erstwhile developer towards the homebuyers. Kindly advise if it is true that in such a scenario the new developer is required to take over the liabilities of the erstwhile Developer. Can the homebuyers who had entered into Agreement for Sale with the erstwhile Develope