An empanelled team of MahaRERA will from February visit sites where developers have declared costs higher than incurred on projects progressing at slow pace.
The team will comprise experts, primarily valuers from the commissioner of income tax and Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India. The inspections will start with the lapsed projects, followed by other projects with complaints.
A senior Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority (MahaRERA) official on Tuesday said the team would inspect such project sites and submit reports. Following this, MahaRERA will go ahead with the necessary scrutiny, the official said.
“Letters of intimation will be sent to developers before such site visits. The experts will initially focus on lapsed projects, where a significant amount has been spent but very little work has been completed,” the official said.
MahaRERA recently decided to allow developers to apply for extension of lapsed projects without the consent of 51% homebuyers in the respective units. Homebuyers, however, feared that MahaRERA’s decision would lead to further delay in completion of projects that have already missed deadlines.
A project is considered “lapsed” when the developer does not adhere to the timeline mentioned at the time of registration. Once a project is declared “lapsed”, the developer concerned cannot advertise for it. The state has over 4,500 lapsed projects.
Another senior MahaRERA official said, “We have already empanelled the investigators for the in-person site visits. We are preparing a format for sending letters of intimation to the developers before visiting the sites. Once the format is prepared, we will send the intimation notices to real estate projects, for which the in-person visits should be done on priority.”
The investigators will prepare a report on the actual progress of the construction work and other related issues pertaining to a project. The report will include details such as stages of construction, target dates of completion approved by the authority and set by the developer and the investigators’ opinion on their observations on possible project completion date.
Most of the projects that need to be investigated are in Mumbai, MMRDA and Pune.
The authority has already listed over 4,500 lapsed projects. “The entire process is to ensure that the developers complete projects on time,” the MahaRERA official said.
Consumers said the measures taken by MahaRERA would lead to a better monitoring system and ensure transparency in the sector.
“The site inspection report will throw up a true picture of the progress of a project,” said Lekha Kuber, who had invested in a project that lapsed registration.
Developer bodies too feel that checks for those defaulting are a must.
National Real Estate Development Council (NARDECO) member and secretary Abhay Kele said, “This is a welcome move to ensure strict adherence to compliance with RERA rules. This will also ensure project completion on time. It is a win-win situation for the real estate industry.”
