Is possession of a partial occupation certificate (OC) a defence for a developer to advertise a real estate project without mentioning the real estate regulatory authority (RERA) registration number?
The Maharashtra RERA levied a penalty of Rs 25,000 on a developer for advertising a project in Khopoli near Mumbai without the registration number. The developer submitted that a partial OC was received for the project and only two apartments did not have an OC. However, MahaRERA maintained it was a violation of the law and imposed the penalty.
What does the RERA Act say about advertising?
According to Section 11 (2) of the RERA Act, any advertisement or prospectus issued or published by the developer must mention prominently the website address of the authority, wherein all details of the registered project have been entered, and include the registration number obtained from the authority and such other incidental matters.
The case
MahaRERA issued a show-cause notice in June to the promoter of the Khopoli project for issuing an advertisement in a newspaper without citing the project registration number.
The developer said the registration number was inadvertently missed due to an oversight by the advertising agency. The developer added the occupation certificate and completion certificate dated August 22, 2022, had been obtained for the entire project, except for two apartments.
After this, MahaRERA said in an order dated July 26 that it is the developer’s responsibility to conspicuously display the project registration number in any advertisement or prospectus disseminated by them. The regulator imposed a penalty of Rs 25,000 on the developer under Section 61 of the RERA Act for violation of Section 11 (2).
What if the developer had a complete OC for the project?
In a similar case involving a developer from Pune, MahaRERA said projects can be advertised without the registration number if they have been completed and have received the OC. The Pune developer had obtained the OC for the project before publishing the advertisement and was therefore not in violation of the rules, MahaRERA said in its order in April.
Legal view
According to Nilesh Shah, a Mumbai-based lawyer, it is clear that real estate projects can be advertised without mentioning the registration number only when the developer has obtained an OC for the entire project and not partially.
Also read: Can Maharashtra RERA classify and rate real estate developers or projects?
“When there is only partial OC, the developer is yet to go and get all approvals, and hence he or she should mention the RERA registration numbers so that prospective property buyers can get all the information about the project online," Shah said.
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