MahaRERA passed five orders to protect the interests of Maharashtra homebuyers

By Bricksnwall | 2024-06-10

At least six regulatory orders have been issued by MahaRERA to protect the rights of Maharashtra homebuyers.

More than 20,000 real estate agents in the state had their registrations suspended by the Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority (MahaRERA) for failing to appear for the mandatory competency certification exam, a move that garnered media attention recently.

To protect the rights of Maharashtra homebuyers, MahaRERA has issued about six regulatory decisions in the past few weeks. These include a variety of topics, including the distribution of parking spaces, senior citizen housing, the timing of amenity delivery, and building quality.

1) Specifics of parking spaces in the letter of allotment and agreement

In April 2024, the MahaRERA required real estate developers to provide an allotment letter and contain information about any parking spaces sold or allocated to buyers in the sale agreement in order to avoid any confusion or future conflicts.

The regulatory body issued the directive in response to multiple grievances raised by purchasers over structural beams impeding parking spaces, inability to park in designated spots, and insufficient room for manoeuvring. As a result, the regulator decided to require developers to provide all parking-related information, including size, height, and width, in the annexures to the allocation letter and sale agreement.

2) Retirement communities

MahaRERA released standards for elder home projects last month. With this action, MahaRERA becomes the first housing regulatory agency in India to provide guidelines for housing developments catering to the needs of senior residents.

These recommendations address a variety of topics, including design, mobility, accessibility, green building practices, and safety elements. Developers shall incorporate special provisions in the Agreement for Sale and other pertinent documents upon implementation of these recommendations. The agency stated in a statement that going forward, senior citizen home developments must be constructed in accordance with model requirements.

3) Date of Amenities Delivery

MahaRERA in April made it required for developers to provide details like the delivery date of amenities, size, and location of the amenities to ensure that homebuyers get what they were promised. This was in response to multiple complaints from homebuyers who claimed that developers had either delayed providing amenities or that the facilities provided were different from what was promised at the time of booking.

4) Reverses real estate agents' registration

About 20,000 agents' registrations were suspended by MahaRERA on May 23 for a year after they were unable to earn the MahaRERA Real Estate Agent Certificate of Competency. These real estate brokers were prohibited from conducting any business by the MahaRERA. MahaRERA took action since 20,000 of the 47,000 real estate agents who were registered failed the required competency exam.

5) Construction quality

A framework for designating independent agencies to assess the quality of building before to granting homeowners' possession was released by MahaRERA in April 2024. To ensure building quality from the beginning, MahaRERA has developed a system for Third Party Quality Monitoring.

The process calls for multiple audits of the construction quality along the course of the project, including the final inspection before homeowners are given ownership.

 Source: HindustanTimes