MahaRERA seeks help from SROs to assess lapsed projects

Mumbai: The Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority (MahaRERA) recently held its first meeting with four Self Regulatory Organisation (SROs) of developers to seek their assistance in assessing accurate information about over 5,000 lapsed real estate projects across Maharashtra.

Sanjay Deshmukh, former IAS officer and nodal officer for lapsed project with the housing regulator, chaired the meeting held last week at MahaRERA office at Bandra Kurla Complex with representatives of developer bodies, CREDAI-MCHI, CREDAI-Maharashtra, National Real Estate Development Council (NAREDCO), and Builders and Developers Association.

The SROs are nodal bodies of developer associations, who work with MahaRERA in better implementation of the RERA provisions, and educate member developers to comply with regulatory processes. Promoters registering their projects with MahaRERA have to be members of either of the six SROs registered with the authority.

Sources said Deshmukh requested the SROs to nominate two senior members of their association to help the authority to screen all the lapsed projects and make assessment.

The lapsed projects will be classified as per these five brackets: projects whose revival won’t impact rights of allottees, projects where conciliation may be required between promoters and home buyers, projects where promoter requires intervention of the competent authority or banks, projects where promoter has vanished and buyers want change of promoter, and project where no solution is possible.

Confirming the meeting, Deshmukh said, “MahaRERA portal has 38,643 ongoing projects registered and 9,999 are completed. Nearly 22,800 projects are ongoing, and as of November 2022, 5,756 projects are lapsed.

“Most of these lapsed projects have not updated their registration pages on our portal. We are sending such promoters email notices to comply within 30 days and update their data. It is a time-consuming process and as of today.”

Deshmukh said the promoters have started updating the information of their projects, and the final count of lapsed projects may change if some of them comply within 30 days.

“After lapsed projects will be asked to pay the requisite fees and re-register with MahaRERA. 2/3rd consent might be required if the projects are seeking extension for the second time,” he said.

Keval Valambhia, COO of Maharashtra Chamber of Housing Industry (MCHI), said, “The lapsed project is a growing concern not only for MahaRERA, but also for the developers and the home buyers. As an SRO of MahaRERA, CREDAI-MCHI spreads awareness among member developers and handholds them on regular updating of information and compliance to RERA provisions.

“We are working hand in hand with the MahaRERA and have nominated two senior developers for supervision of the initial assessment and to connect with developers whose projects are lapsed.”