The Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority (MahaRERA) has taken suo motu action against 628 housing projects across the state for not complying with the regulation to display registration number as well as QR code in the advertising materials.
Of the 628 housing projects, 312 are from the Mumbai region including Mumbai, Mumbai suburban, Thane, Nashik, and Konkan. Around 250 projects are from the Pune region that covers Pune city, western Maharashtra and Marathwada, while 66 projects are from the Nagpur region.
To keep one’s investment secured, MahaRERA has appealed to homebuyers not to engage in transactions with housing projects without the mandatory RERA registration number.
“Promoters of housing projects are not permitted to advertise their projects without a MahaRERA registration number. Starting August 1, 2023, it is also mandatory to display QR code with every advertisement. This enables homebuyers to access project related important information. Despite this, some developers are violating these guidelines. Therefore, MahaRERA is always on the lookout for such advertisements and regularly initiates action against the violators,” said Ajoy Mehta, chairman, MahaRERA.
For effective implementation of guidelines and to identify violators, MahaRERA takes assistance from the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI). Advertisements are no more limited to the traditional medium. It is crucial to keep a check on the new-age formats as well.
The collaboration with ASCI aims at expanding the horizons and identifying such violators in the new-age media as well as it is backed by artificial intelligence.
Thus far, the collaboration has helped in zeroing in on the violators in newspapers, websites, online video streaming channels and social media. Surprisingly, the rate of violation is significantly higher on social media as compared to the traditional formats of advertisements.
As per the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, it is binding for any project in Maharashtra that exceeds 500 square meters or involves more than eight apartments (including plots) to be registered with MahaRERA.
No marketing activities or sales in such housing projects are permitted without securing registration number from the MahaRERA.
Moreover, starting August 1, 2023, it has become mandatory for the developers to provide detailed information pertaining to the project such as project’s name, developer’s name, renewal of project’s registration, expected date of completion, registration status, pending complaints, pending litigations, any recovery warrants issued, among others.
A simple scan of the project’s QR code is expected to disclose all this information related to the project.
Despite making it mandatory to print Registration number and QR code in all publicity materials, it was observed that some developers continue to have disregard for the guideline. Hence, MahaRERA initiated suo motu action against such violators and also served them show cause notices.
