After making it mandatory for real estate developers to display a QR code in every promotion activity for a real estate project, the Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority (MahaRERA) has also asked real estate agents to do the same or face a penalty of up to Rs 50,000.
Homebuyers can scan the ‘quick response’ codes with their smartphones to get information about a real estate project or a real estate agent, as well as about projects.
Beginning August 1, MahaRERA had made it mandatory for all developers to prominently display a QR code—black-and-white barcodes that are scannable—on every real estate project promotion/advertisement, across all visual media.
“MahaRERA, having introduced QR Code for each and every registered real estate project, the directions issued by the authority respectively shall mutatis mutandis [translation: with necessary changes] apply to all registered real estate agents. Real estate agents shall prominently display QR Code on each and every real estate project promotion / advertisement published in the mediums as more specifically listed in MahaRERA order of May 2023,” the regulator said in an order issued on August 21.
“The QR Code published shall be legible, readable, and detectable with software application and shall be published besides MahaRERA project registration number. Failure to comply with above shall be constructed [construed] as violation of the directions issued by the authority, and may attract penalty up to Rs 50,000/- subject however to a minimum penalty which shall not be less than Rs 10,000/- under Section 65 of the Act shall be imposed upon real estate agents for each such violations,” the order added.
(Note to readers: Explanatory text in brackets inserted by MC. All other text in the above two paragraphs has only been edited for spelling errors).
Also read: Developers to display QR code on advertisements or face up to Rs 50k penalty in Maharashtra
Why is the QR code used?
According to MahaRERA, homebuyers can scan QR codes using their smartphones to get information about a real estate project or real estate agent. In addition, they will also be able to access information about a project, such as the date of registration, expected date of completion, complaints against the project, approvals received, status after construction starts, approved plans, litigation and other details crucial for the project etc.
Also read: 170 projects up for deregistration in Maharashtra
Since the inception of MahaRERA in May 2017, more than 42,000 real estate projects have been registered in Maharashtra and more than 44,000 real estate agents have been registered.
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