Mumbai Grahak Panchayat’s survey aims at maximum projects under MahaRERA

Mumbai Grahak Panchayat (MGP) has urged consumers to register complaints about errant builders on its portal to ensure that no developer is left out from registration with the Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority (MahaRERA). The survey also intends to track the unregistered developers and share the information with the regulatory authority for further action. Nearly 17,000 real estate projects are registered with MahaRERA. The consumer body also wants to reach out to peer groups across the state to ensure registration of maximum housing projects. “MGP is conducting an online survey of home buyers across the state to collect information of the ongoing projects still not registered with MahaRERA. The survey will collect information about the developers who have collected more than 10% of flat cost, but have not signed agreements with home buyers,” MGP President Shirish Deshpande said.
“We will urge all consumer bodies across the state to be a part of this movement to ensure that maximum realtors are registered. The information can be filed through an online survey that will be open till October 10,” he added. Once the survey is complete, the MGP plans to take up the issue with MahaRERA with evidence. “We have initiated the survey to ensure that the laws under RERA not only remain in books, but are implemented.” “There are two issues — unregistered projects and developers who do not enter into agreements with homebuyers even after collecting 10% of the project cost. Both these issues are punishable with penalty up to 5-10% of project costs, respectively,” Deshpande said.The survey entails around 20 questions, wherein the respondents will have to answer in ‘yes’ or ‘no’. It has so far garnered responses from around 1,000 aggrieved homebuyers. Recently, MahaRERA was credited by Housing Department Minister Hardeep Singh Puri for having a 90% redressal system of cases in the last six months. MahaRERA authorities said the conciliation forum were able to resolve the cases at the entry point itself. The forum includes benches of two persons each. In every bench, one representative is from a reputed developer body and the other is from the consumer forum. The moment they receive complaints from either party, they seek their consent and try to settle the issues. Only in 15 cases, both parties (homebuyers and builders) could not reach a settlement, a MahaRERA official said.