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The Forum for People’s Collective Efforts (FPCE), a nationwide organization representing homebuyers, has requested compensation from the Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority (MahaRERA) for homebuyers, while expressing concerns about real estate developers’ failure to comply with the statutory requirement of providing project updates every quarter.
The FPCE has also urged MahaRERA to impose penalties on promoters of these projects for their non-compliance, citing Section 61 of the Real Estate (Regulation & Development) Act, 2016, which stipulates that defaulters may be liable for a penalty of up to 5% of the estimated project cost.
Recently, MahaRERA issued notices to approximately 16,000 developers and promoters across the state for unsatisfactory responses regarding project information. In January, MahaRERA had issued show cause notices to 19,500 projects for not updating mandatory project information as per Section 11 of the Act. This means that only about 18% of the notices, or 3,500 notices for various projects, have been complied with since then.
The regulator has initiated a review of projects that have been registered since its establishment in May 2017 in order to enhance monitoring. However, according to claims made by FPCE, the regulator has been allocating time to registering the Self-Regulatory Organization of Builders (SRO), which is not mandated by the Act, and has been prioritizing labour training initiatives that are beyond its scope.
The FPCE is alarmed that the regulator is focusing on deviations and misplaced priorities instead of effectively enforcing RERA to safeguard the interests of the real estate sector and homebuyers. The organization believes that corrective measures are necessary to prevent the lack of information updates on websites from becoming a common practice across other RERAs in different states
As per legal requirements, developers are obligated to update project details on the MahaRERA website every quarter. The issuance of thousands of notices indicates that developers have been neglecting this obligation for a long time, suggesting a persistent violation fuelled by their confidence that regulators would not take action against them.
The FPCE expresses concern that properly scrutinizing the responses to the 16,000 notices would be challenging, as tracking multiple uploads of information may be difficult. The organization fears that this may result in further violations, despite the regulator’s belief that the notices have been complied with. In general, the FPCE believes that MahaRERA has failed in fulfilling its duties and has undermined the interests of homebuyers who rely on the regulator to safeguard their rights.
This story was first published in ET Realty
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