Non-Compliance halts real estate projects in Maharashtra

Following the discovery of certain developers in the Kalyan-Dombivali region submitting fake civic clearance documents during project registration under MahaRERA, a mandate was established for local civic bodies and planning authorities. They were instructed to send emails containing all commencement and occupation certificates issued for real estate projects to a designated email address in order to validate their legitimacy.

However, while several prominent civic corporations have adhered to this directive, certain municipal councils and town planning authorities have neglected to update MahaRERA through email channels. This failure to comply has resulted in the accumulation of around 160 pending registrations for real estate projects across the state.

MahaRERA had previously approached the urban development department with a request to integrate the websites of local authorities with its own platform. In the absence of this integration, these bodies were specifically instructed to forward commencement and occupation certificates to MahaRERA whenever they were issued.

Subsequently, MahaRERA introduced a requirement as of June 19 of the present year. According to this, real estate projects could only be registered subsequent to comparing and validating the authenticity of a commencement certificate sent by a local civic body or town planning authority. This comparison would be carried out against the certificate submitted by the project promoter.

Hitesh Thakkar, the vice president of NAREDCO (National Real Estate Development Council), remarked that most major civic corporations in the state have been communicating certificate issuances to MahaRERA via email. However, some municipal councils and town-planning authorities have not followed suit. Their failure to comply with the directives of the urban development department and the high court amounts to a violation. These projects will face cessation, placing developers in a state of uncertainty.