MahaRERA notice to lapsed projects, yield results

The Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority MahaRERA has received an encouraging and positive response to the whopping number of notices that were issued Of the 10773 lapsed housing projects that were served with show cause notices 5324 have replied with the desired responseThe housing regulator had issued show cause notices to the developers of the projects that had failed to keep MahaRERA updated about their projectrsquos status despite the project completion deadline getting lapsed Such developers were provided with a 30 day window to update their projectrsquos information said MahaRERA officialBuilders of 5324 housing projects have replied to the show cause notices which is welcoming Of these 3517 projects have submitted their Occupancy Certificates and 524 have applied for the projectrsquos deadline to be extended Currently the response of 1283 projects is under scrutiny Already action has been initiated to kept in abeyance 1950 projectsrsquo registration with MahaRERA and their bank accounts have been frozen In these projects transaction related restrictions have been put into place the official added see area wise boxIn case of the balance 3499 housing projects a process has been initiated to take similar action against them as they have not respondedWhile registering the project with the MahaRERA the developer has to unambiguously mention the projectrsquos proposed completion dateIn case of the project getting ready as per the proposed completion date the developer is required to submit Form 4 along with the Occupancy Certificate If not ready then the builder has to apply for the deadlinersquos extensionIn case of an eventuality of the project faced with challenges the developer is required to apply for the projectrsquos deregistration Apart from these each projectrsquos promoter is required to mandatorily submit QPR and annual progress reports on MahaRERArsquos website within the specified time frameThese measures are required to be taken along with the necessary supporting documents MahaRERA has decided to initiate strict action against the projects that do not comply with any of the above steps as per the timeline mentioned in the Act Therefore MahaRERA has decided to cancel or suspend registration of the erring projects apart from levying penal measures and also instructing the Joint District Registrars not to register sale or purchase of any flat in such projects Bank accounts of the defaulting projects have also been frozen the official concludedWhen contacted MahaRERA Chairman Manoj Saunik said The primary objective of the Real Estate Regulation and Development Act 2016 is to ensure transparency accountability and financial discipline in the real estate sector This is to protect the homebuyersrsquo interests For this purpose every housing project is required to update the projectrsquos status on MahaRERArsquos website periodically ndash quarterly and annually This keeps the homebuyers to stay informed about the project However in practice it has been happening to a limited extent On Compliance Cellrsquos review of registered projects in January 2023 it was discovered that only 3 out of 748 projects had updated the required information After a series of followups there has been a significant improvement in the flow of information This is evident from the responses received to the show cause notices of lapsed projectsSaunik further added MahaRERA is aware that the number of projects that have not responded is significant and we have initiated action against such projects to protect homebuyerrsquos interests It is mandatory for the developers to keep project details updated on MahaRERArsquos website To ensure this MahaRERA insists on Quarterly Progress Reportrsquos QPR submission within the prescribed time frame