Chartered accountants receive a show-cause notice from MahaRERA.

MUMBAI: After noticing that MahaRERA regulations were being broken because the same chartered accountant had been hired for the role of the project auditor as well as that of the statutory auditor, MahaRERA issued show-cause notices to chartered accountants and also wrote to the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.

Promoters are required by MahaRERA regulations to provide Form 3 which has been certified by the project auditor while taking money out of the bank.

In a similar vein, the developer must present a statutory audit report completed by an accountant or auditor once every year. Different accountants or firms must play each of these roles. MahaRERA has also discovered inconsistencies in the UDINs that the chartered accountants gave.

MahaRERA observed that both the forms and certificates were filed by a single chartered accountant in contravention of MahaRERA rules while reviewing the information provided by the promoters.

The promoters had ulterior motives when they chose to assign both tasks to the same chartered accountant. The statutory auditor is required to search for errors or discrepancies in the project auditor’s audit. If both are the same individual, it raises the possibility that the promoters are hiding something, according to a MahaRERA representative.

In order to comply with MahaRERA laws and the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act’s provisions, we have sent notices to chartered accountants and written to the Institute of Chartered Accountants. We will take additional measures and hold the promoters liable, the official continued. MahaRERA was able to find the infractions thanks to the chartered accountants’ Unique Document Identification Numbers (UDIN) numbers.

Every promoter is required to open a separate account and retain 70% of the money they receive from consumers in accordance with Section 4(2) (1) (D) of the Real Estate Act. The project engineer, architect, and chartered accountant must certify the percentage of work and expense completed before these monies may be withdrawn at each stage of development. Additionally, once a year, the developer must update a statutory audit report on MahaRERA’s website.