Real estate agents in Maharashtra will soon be a very different entity from those around the country. Not only will they boast of registration certificates from the state’s Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA), but would also have the prescribed hours of training under their belt before they earn that certificate. Agents in India traditionally had no entry barriers and even after RERA came into being, anyone who could pay the agent fee and get registered with the state RERA could be certified as an agent. Knowledge was neither imparted uniformly nor tested before certification. But with the coming of RERA, there is a context and boundary of laws and rules for the real estate industry to function.
End-use property buyers most often make a one-time purchase, spending the bulk of their life’s savings, and they need an advisor. However, as Ajoy Mehta, MahaRERA Chairman says, “Training becomes effective when everybody answers uniformly, as the law defines it.” By training all agents with a similar syllabus, with equal hours of training, be it at a college, university or even a training centre, the state RERA has ensured that whichever agent the consumer goes to, the basic answers are uniform. Concepts such as carpet area, force majeure, buyer compensations, etc. are taught uniformly. This syllabus was crafted by the All India Institute for Local Self Government (AIILSG), a neutral third party that drafted a course curriculum that was fair and easy for agents to comprehend and master, and get certified on.
Agents’ Obligation
Today the agent is duty-bound to tell the consumer how to determine the actual carpet area within the walls of the house as well as elements of the super area for which the consumer must pay too. But with all the elements spelt out in the law, it is much more correct and above board. The agent effectively becomes the buffer between the promoter and the consumer. With liability clauses in place in case of misrepresentation, the agent will now truly become the guide. More than anything, the ground rules are laid and any deviation can be reported. Because knowledge of the right methods is being imparted, and there are consequences for deviation, self-regulation is most likely.
The Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS), is conducting the examinations that have to be taken online. The training is now underway and the dates of the examinations will soon be fixed.
When the first lot of agents get certified after training, it will be a giant leap forward for real estate. It took India 70 years to come up with a law and another six to start enforcing this knowledge. The authority is now shifting the onus of fair trade in real estate from RERA regulation to knowledge in the ecosystem.
Reporting Requirements
All this is possible because the agents have to file their half-yearly reports on the MahaRERA website. As transaction records grow, so does the database and, therefore, the finetuning of the training. As a next step, it has also defined that large agents with a turnover above Rs 20 lakh annually would have to appoint a principal, and a director, according to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
MahaRERA has now asserted itself as the prime authority in the real estate space and has started pulling in all the threads to make sure that related laws are enforced appropriately. By doing so, it ensures that the sector as a whole gets cleaned up at every level. Agents were the missing link in most states to come within the ambit of regulation. MahaRERA agent certification should bring hope to thousands of consumers who often had no benchmark on whom to choose as an agent.
E Jayashree Kurup is a researcher/writer on Real estate. She is Director, Real Estate & Cities, Wordmeister Editorial Services. Views are personal, and do not represent the stand of this publication.
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