Mumbai: The Mumbai Grahak Panchayat (MGP) has demanded that the Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority (MahaRERA) not only prominently publish the proposed deregistration of 88 housing projects in the state but also blacklist them and penalise the developers 5% of the project cost.
Consumer Rights Advocacy Group Demands Transparency in Deregistered Housing Projects
On Sunday, the Free Press Journal had reported that some of the prominent builders have sought deregistration of certain residential projects.
As per the MGP chairman Advocate Shirish Deshpande’s letter, “In the absence of any public notice in the newspapers about so many promoters applying for deregistration, the concerned homebuyers… will not come to know about such serious development. Hence our first suggestion is that MahaRERA should give public notice in all Marathi and English newspapers publishing the full list ...”
MahaRERA Urged to Publish Full List of Deregistered Projects in Newspapers
To check if any claims or rights of any buyer are pending, the MahaRERA has put out a public notice on Friday on its portal seeking objections within 15 days. If no claims are received for any of the projects, all these 88 projects will get deregistered.
Deshpande told the FPJ, “We have reasons to believe that in most of these projects, no allottees associations might have been formed by the promoters. The homebuyers that would be affected by deregistration deserve to be represented before MahaRERA. We, as a registered voluntary consumer organisation, are ready and willing to represent the homebuyers before the Authority as an amicus curiae.”
Violating Developers Could Face Penalties and Project Bans, Says Consumer Organization
As the MGP is of the view that the developers are guilty of violating sections 4, 11 and 19 of RERA, they are liable to be penalised up to 5 % of the total project cost, as per section 61 of RERA. Additionally, another demand is to prevent such developers from undertaking any other real estate projects for the next three years and publish their photographs on MahaRERA’s website, as per the regulatory framework.
Deregistration List Includes Projects from Prominent Developers Across Maharashtra
The deregistration list names the projects from the developers of Panvelkar Group, Kalpataru Group, Ashwin Sheth Group, Hubtown, Arihant Superstructures, etc.
Of the 88 projects, 39 are from Pune, 15 from Raigad, eight in Thane, four in Mumbai city, three each in Sindhudurg and Palghar, two each in Mumbai suburbs, Nashik, Nagpur, Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar, Satara and one each in Kolhapur, Nanded, Latur, Ratnagiri and Dadra & Nagar Haveli.
The reasons to get the projects deregistered include unviable projects coming to a standstill, lack of funds, changes in government regulations, exiting the project, internal disputes, to name a few. The permission to realtors to delist was granted by MahaRERA in February.
The regulatory body has laid out certain conditions for realtors to scrap their projects. One such most important clause is that the project should have zero allottees or homebuyers. Deregistration will be entertained only if all the rights and claims of buyers are settled.
