Empowering Real Estate: MahaRERA's 2023 decisions reshape sector with transparency and fairness

MahaRERA has taken several important and pioneering decisions that will have a positive long-term impact on the real estate sector, empowering home buyers in the year 2023. This is creating transparency in the real estate sector by making the developers accountable. Also, the home buyers are benefiting from this. MahaRERA’s pioneering decisions have been so impactful that many of these decisions are now being followed by other states.

Major decisions that deal directly with the homebuyer are as follows:
1. Standardized Agreement for Sale and Allotment letter: MahaRERA has imposed an obligation on the developers that the agreement for sale and allotment letter between the home buyer and the developer should be given according to the draft approved by MahaRERA. Force majeure, carpet area, defect liability period and transfer agreement cannot be changed in the home purchase contract. Details of flat number, mat area, expected date of project completion are made mandatory while issuing registration letters.

2. Grievance Redressal Cell with Designated Officer for redressal of grievances of home buyers: After registration of the house, if there are any complaints of the home buyer, the buyer had no recourse. Therefore, instructions have been given by MahaRERA to set up a grievance redressal cell with at least one designated officer to redress the grievances of home buyers. It has also been directed to prominently display the name, contact number of the concerned person at the project site and on the website.

3. Arrangement of counselling at MahaRERA headquarters to resolve queries of home buyers and developers: Counselling arrangements have been made at the MahaRERA headquarters to resolve the issues of home buyers and developers. Senior officials with overall knowledge of MahaRERA's functioning are available in this room.

4. Mandatory to print QR code with MahaRERA registration number on all types of advertisements so that the customer can get comprehensive information about the project in one click. MahaRERA has made provisions for suo motu penal action against projects printing advertisements without the MahaRERA registration number and QR code

5. Real Estate Agents Exam: Mandating real estate agents to obtain certification by passing an exam along with training to ensure knowledge of regulatory provisions.

6. MahaRERA Grading Matrix: MahaRERA has announced the formation of a Grading matrix from April 2024. This information will be given in such a way that the project can be evaluated on the basis of project details, technical details, financial details and legal details.

Some major provisions exclusively for developers are as follows:
1. Establishment of micro-control room for compliance with regulatory provisions: As per the regulatory provisions, it is mandatory to update the quarterly and annual form on the MahaRERA website with details of how many flats have been registered, how much money has been received, how much has been spent, what is the project status, if there have been any changes in the project. By examining these forms, MahaRERA is able to maintain a fine control over matters, whereby projects with financial irregularities are being detected and preventive action is being taken in time.

2. DIN information is now a mandatory field when registering for new projects: While registering new projects, the developer has been made mandatory to give the Director Identification Number (DIN) of all the directors along with the promoter of the project alongside their role in the project in the form of a Self-Affidavit. Due to this, the performance of these directors in other projects will be available to the home buyers while making a decision.

3. A retired officer of the rank of Additional Collector has been appointed to recover the compensation ordered by the MahaRERA. Since they are continuously following up with the Collector, Deputy Collector, Tehsildar, recovery has accelerated.

4. MahaRERA gives registration numbers only to those projects which fulfill the prescribed conditions. MahaRERA has started to carry out strict financial, legal and technical verification of every project that comes for registration, keeping in mind the reasons for stopping the project in most cases. Provision for deregistration of totally unviable projects has also been put in place.

5. Publish consultation paper for quality construction to avoid need for defect liability period: MahaRERA emphasizes on quality construction to avoid the need for defect liability period. A consultation paper detailing what can be done has been released. After the notification period, the standard procedure (SoP) will be decided for the actual implementation of the suggestions and the detailed discussions with the experts and practitioners in this field.

Homebuyers usually invest the savings of their lifetime for securing a place to call home. Ajoy Mehta, Chairman, MahaRERA, said that "MahaRERA has been set up to ensure that the investment of home buyers is safe and protected and that they get an assured home in time. While implementing the Real Estate Act in Letter and Spirit, MahaRERA is purposefully prescribing Standard Operating Procedures for more consistency and clarity where necessary. Due to this, the developers are also clearer about their responsibilities and are thus bound to follow them. The basic intention of MahaRERA is to avoid any disputes and complaints. In order to avoid complaints in the construction sector in the future as well, MahaRERA will continue to define standardized procedures as per the need to protect the interests of the customers.”