MahaRERA revokes registration of 15 real estate projects near Mumbai for 'fabricating documents'

In a suo motu action for the second time in a month, the Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority (MahaRERA) has revoked the registration of 15 projects of developers allegedly involved in fabricating documents and obtaining RERA registration.

All the projects are located within a 50 to 150 km radius of Mumbai in the Kalyan Dombivali Municipal Corporation (KDMC) jurisdiction, which is a part of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR).

The projects are mostly in the affordable residential housing segment, with the unit price varying between Rs 30 lakh and Rs 60 lakh.

The 15 real estate projects do not involve any major players but grade C and D developers. The companies named include Aditya Infra, Gurukrupa Construction, Dhanashree Construction, Durga Construction, Matoshree Developers and Gaondevi Enterprses.

Around 65 developers are being investigated for allegedly submitting fake permission documents to obtain RERA registration. Of these, registrations of 49 developers were revoked earlier this month, and an additional 15 registrations were revoked via an order dated November 21 by MahaRERA Chairman Ajoy Mehta.

According to the order, the MahaRERA had on November 21, conducted a physical hearing and summoned the 15 developers. However, none of the developers showed up, forcing the Authority to revoke the registrations of 15 projects under sections 5 and 7 of the RERA Act.

The order states, "In the present case of not obtaining the Commencement Certificate (CCs) from the Competent Authority and misrepresenting to this Authority as well as the allottees / home buyers and collecting money through misrepresentation and taking the bookings in the above-mentioned MahaRERA registered projects can be said to be unfair or deceptive practice (sic)."

What is RERA registration?

Under the RERA Act of 2016, all real estate projects have to be registered with the RERA in respective states. In Maharashtra, on registration of a project with MahaRERA, the projects are issued a certificate with a unique registration number.

One can log on to the MahaRERA website, and, after entering the unique number, get details on the project. Under the rules laid down by the Act, no one can book, sell, market or advertise a particular property without first registering it with RERA.

The order has stated that the regulator has powers under Section 7 of the RERA Act, 2016, to revoke the registration of MahaRERA projects if the promoter (developer) was found to be indulging in any unfair practices, as also under section 5 of the Act.

Further, the MahaRERA, in the order, has also stated that it would approach the Urban Development Department of Maharashtra to immediately put in place a system wherein all milestone approvals relevant to buyers / purchasers of real estate projects, such as the Commencement Certificate (CC) and Occupation Certificate (OC), are put on a dedicated portal by the respective planning authority.

This is to ensure that the certificates can be verified by both the buyers of real estate projects and the MahaRERA, said the order.

Ajoy Mehta, MahaRERA Chairman, did not respond to a query on the revocation of the 15 real estate projects.