As many as 36 percent real-estate projects launched before the setting up of the real estate regulatory authority (RERA) in Maharashtra have disputes, said Ajoy Mehta, Chairman of Maharashtra RERA.
MahaRERA was set up on May 1, 2017.
Mehta said that the impact of MahaRERA is such that only 3 percent of the projects registered after 2017 have disputes.
As many as 38 percent of the real-estate projects from pre-2017 are applying for timeline extension, compared to 9 percent of projects registered after MahaRERA, Mehta said while speaking at the Confederation of Indian Industry’s (CII) annual Indian real estate conclave in New Delhi on May 29.
"My target is to bring down the disputes further to 1 percent," said Mehta.
Transparency led to a drop in disputes
According to Mehta, MahaRERA's move to ask for quarterly progress reports from developers, nudging them to publish the approved plan in public (on websites) to improve transparency and to inform consumers where their projects stand is leading to a drop in disputes in the sector.
“The information you have as a developer should be there for a buyer also,” said Mehta, making a case to cut down on the information asymmetry in the real-estate sector.
Red-flagging projects
"MahaRERA is also red-flagging projects on delays and ensuring a neat division between accountants and auditors of real-estate players to avoid conflict of interest. As a regulator, we track when a project should be completed, and if the project is getting delayed, the developer needs to be told that it is lagging behind,” said Mehta.
“We are working on separating accountants and auditors. Developers’ accountant cannot be its auditor,” added Mehta.
Recovery warrants of around Rs 100 crore implemented
"We are upgrading our IT system, and it shall be done over the next three months. After this, we will be in a better position to make real-estate developers more accountable for compliance," Mehta said.
MahaRERA has also been organising open houses for developers. “This is a forum where developers can come and tell us what their problems are. We are ready to hear from all the stakeholders. We have been following up with the respective district collectors, after which recovery warrants of around Rs 100 crore have been implemented in the last few months," he said.
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