Rs 50K fine for late RERA registrations by developers
More than 400 developers have incurred a penalty of Rs 50, 000 each after they failed to register their realty projects on the Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) website before the given deadline. Even as a majority of developers across Maharashtra have registered themselves on the MahaRERA website before its deadline of July 31, there were nearly 450 developers who have missed the deadline.
In the RERA staff meeting held on Wednesday, senior officials were summoned to decide on the penalty amount that is to be levied on the developers for late submissions of their projects. An official, requesting anonymity told Free Press Journal, “After several discussions, the authority has decided to levy a penalty of Rs 50,000 on developers for late submissions. A notice would be sent to all these developers on Thursday and they would have to pay the fine within seven days of the notice served.”
After RERA rolled out on May 1 this year, developers were directed to register all the details of their realty projects without Occupation Certificate. An OC is issued by the municipal corporation to signify that the building is complete as per the approved plan and is in compliance with law and without the certificate it is difficult for the project to get water and power connections. The developers were also directed to submit the details of their projects of the last five years. By July 31 nearly 10,852 project applications were submitted by developers across Maharashtra.
The official added that sanctioning these projects would take another month. “The officials are directed to verify all the details submitted by the developer. The process would take more than a month.” The projects would be approved by the authorities which would involve verifying the facts of the project details provided by the developer.
Developers had requested the authorities to extend the deadline. However, a RERA official said that it hardly takes more than an hour for a project to get registered if the developer has gathered all the details.
According to RERA, each state will set up a regulatory body in order to solve disputes between the buyer and developer. Also, the regulatory authority would ensure publication on their websites of information related to profile and track record of promoters, details of apartments, plots and garages, registered agents and consultants, financial details of the promoters, status of approvals and projects etc.