MahaRERA urged to prevent builders from taking advance maintenance charges

Mumbai: Leading consumer body Mumbai Grahak Panchayat has written a letter to Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority (MahaRERA) chairperson Ajoy Mehta, seeking directions to promoters to stop collecting advance maintenance charges for one or two years from homebuyers and ensure formation of cooperative housing societies after more than 50% buyers book flats in a project.

Lauding Mehta’s initiatives to ensure promoters fulfil their statutory obligations under the RERA, the MGP chairperson Shirish Deshpande pointed out in his letter that promoters continue to collect one or two years of advance maintenance charges, while giving possession to homebuyers.

“Such practice was understandable in the pre-RERA regime in the absence of existence of the cooperative societies at the time of giving possession to the homebuyers. As you are aware that section 11(4) (e) of the RERA Act, 2016 and MahaRERA Rule 9(1) requires the promoter to take necessary steps to form an association or cooperative society of the allottees within a period of three months of the majority (more than 51 %) of the allottees having booked the apartments. As such, in most of the cases, such cooperative societies should be in place at the time of the promoter offering possession to the allottees,” said Deshpande.

He said that section 17 of the RERA Act, 2016 mandates that the promoter should execute conveyance in favour of the cooperative society within three months from the date of occupancy certificate. “In the light of these provisions, the practice of the promoters to demand and collect one or two years advance maintenance is patently unfair, unjustified and illegal. We therefore request you to direct all promoters to discontinue the practice of demanding and collecting advance maintenance charges,” the letter read.

Deshpande said the MahaRERA should ensure that all promoters strictly comply with the provisions and take effective steps for formation of cooperative societies as soon as more than 50% home buyers book apartments in their projects.