MahaRERA issues notice to 10,773 ‘lapsed’ projects, MMR tops the list

MUMBAI: The developers of over one-fifth of projects, registered with Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority (MahaRERA), have been issued show cause notices, as the projects have come under the “lapsed” category. Of the total 48,094 projects registered, notices have been issued to 10,773 projects, since the beginning of December.

The notices have been issued to developers who have failed to update their project’s status and related information on MahaRERA website, even after a month of the project’s completion date. As per rules, the developers have to update a project’s status within 30 days of the completion date.

These developers will now have to respond to the show cause notice within a month, failing which MahaRERA will initiate proceedings to make them accountable and protect home buyers’ interests.

The high number of lapsed projects came to the fore, as MahaRERA’s compliance cell was micro-monitoring all registered projects on different parameters.

Of the 10,773 projects that are under scrutiny, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, which includes the surrounding northern Konkan region, has the highest number of lapsed projects at 5,231, followed by Pune region with 3,406, Nashik with 815, Nagpur with 548, Sambhaji Nagar with 511, Amravati with 201, Dadra & Nagar Haveli with 43 and Daman & Diu with18.

A MahaRERA official said there is a possibility that the developer has completed the project but has not uploaded the required documents, resulting in getting the lapsed category tag. He further said that during scrutiny, they will discover how many of the 10,773 projects have been completed and how many of them have stalled.

“Each of the projects registered with MahaRERA are required to submit a quarterly progress report as well as project’s status on the website, on a periodic basis. At present, 10,773 real estate projects in the state have lapsed, leading to investments of several homebuyers getting stuck,” said Manoj Saunik, chairman, MahaRERA.

He added that as per regulation, it is mandatory for developers to submit Occupancy Certificate (OC) along with Form 4 (architect’s certificate on project’s completion) of their respective projects or to seek deadline revision. After the 30-day window gets expired, if the developer does not initiate any attempt to submit the documents or seek an extension, MahaRERA is left with no other alternative but to either cancel or suspend the project’s registration. In case a project lapses, restrictions are imposed on the sale of flats and bank accounts associated with the project are frozen.