MahaRERA is setting up conciliation forum benches in each district to resolve disputes between developers and home buyers.

By Abhay Shah, Realty Quarter

The Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority (MahaRERA) is contemplating extending its conciliation forum experiment by establishing benches to assist settle conflicts between builders and house buyers in each district of the state.

Gautam Chatterjee, the chairman of the authority, said the expansion is going to take place in phases. MahaRERA will set up new benches in a couple of days in Thane, Navi Mumbai, Mira-Bhayander, Vasai-Virar, Palghar, Kalyan-Dombivli and Nashik. An additional bench will also be put up by the authority in Pune.

Last weekend the authority conducted a two-day workshop on skill development to train new members to join these panels. Also attending the workshop were members of the existing 10 benches in Mumbai and five benches in Pune.

On 1 February 2018, MahaRERA introduced the Conciliation Forum with 15 representatives from developer bodies such as the Maharashtra Chamber of Housing Industry, the Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India, and the National Real Estate Development Council and 15 Mumbai Grahak Panchayat customer activists for the Mumbai and Pune Benches.

The forum is an alternative conflict redressal system under the Real Estate Regulation and Development Act provisions. Each bench consists of one delegate from the body of the developers and one from the Mumbai Grahak Panchayat who tries to fix conflicts through dialogue and discussions. If an agreement is reached between the builder and the house buyer, then the terms will be enforced. If they did not manage to settle the issue, the complainants may still opt for the regular but relatively costly legal process to seek redressal.

A complaint may be lodged on the online portal of the forum, after which an application is sent to the other party to engage in the process. The complainant must pay a fee of Rs 1,000 if the other party decides to engage in the procedure. The authority then plans a bench session to try to fix the issue in three meetings. Compared to the regular operation requiring lawyers, the system has proved cost-effective and faster.

Since the forum was started, the authority has obtained 547 applications for conciliation from builders as well as house buyers. In 489 of these cases, opposition sides decided to conciliation. The conciliation process has been finished in 434 cases and terms of the consent have been signed. Hearings are in progress in 55 of these cases.

“The conciliation forum has a success rate of 78%, and Maharashtra is the first state to introduce this system effectively,” said Mumbai Grahak Panchayat President, Shirish Deshpande.

“When they met with real estate investors the experiment has come to praise from the Union housing minister and Union finance minister, and I think the model is probable to be emulated in other states.”