Godrej Properties promotes its project without registration, receives a fine of Rs.30 lakhs from MahaRERA.

By Abhay Shah, Realty Quarter

The Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority (MahaRERA) enforced on Godrej Properties a penalty of Rs 30 lakh for placing 30 hoardings of their new project in Thane without first registering it.

After complainant Aditya Bothra brought the discrepancy to its notice, the authority called up Godrej Properties for a hearing. The developer had conducted a pre-launch marketing campaign promoting its new project without first registering it on the MahaRERA online portal as an ongoing real estate project.

During the hearing, Himanshu Joshi, a representative of Godrej Properties, lately went before MahaRERA chairperson Gautam Chatterjee and acknowledged that the firm had set up 30 billboards for their real estate projects at various places in Mumbai and Thane.

However, Joshi argued that these billboards could not be treated as law-breaking advertisements as the billboards also displayed a specific disclaimer. He said the billboards displayed a disclaimer stating that the hoarding information is neither an advertisement nor an offer to sale of any property project within the ambit of RERA. “The developer will only launch and sell the flats/units after receiving RERA’s permanent registration number,” said the disclaimer.

After reviewing the evidence Chatterjee said that such billboards might be misleading as potential customers such as Bothra got subsequent phone calls and was reportedly told to deposit a booking amount to block apartments in the project. The chairperson emphasized that these promotions can also disturb the competitive standard.

During the hearing, Joshi acknowledged that an unintended mistake was to make pre-launch announcements without receiving the MahaRERA registration number and made an unconditional apology. He also said the firm would bring down all the billboards and assure that they will not be “soliciting, misleading or engaging” in a pre-launch announcement in the future.

Even at the subsequent hearing, the complainant withdrew his complaint, Chatterjee stated the Authority “cannot be ignorant” of the promoter’s incompliant behaviour. Chatterjee stated in its order on 27 August that the application for registration will only be approved after this penalty is paid.

Subsequently, Godrej Nirvaan received the authority’s approval.