MahaRERA (RERA Maharashtra) – Thing You Must Know About MahaRERA Act

What is MahaRERA?

The Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority, commonly known as MahaRERA Act, serves as the regulatory body for real estate transactions within the state of Maharashtra. Its primary objective is to ensure transparency and fairness in all aspects of buying and selling properties, thus safeguarding the interests of both buyers and developers.

What is RERA ACT in Maharashtra (MahaRERA)?            
The real estate sector is experiencing significant growth nationwide, prompting the enactment of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016, aimed at ensuring fairness among developers and providing security to property buyers.

Each Indian state typically has its own Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) to monitor and foster the real estate market’s growth. In Maharashtra, MahaRERA Act plays this role, established to regulate and promote real estate development within the state. Maharashtra was among the pioneers in implementing RERA, with a primary goal of enhancing transparency in property transactions, whether residential or commercial.

Registration with MahaRERA is obligatory for all residential and commercial projects, ensuring compliance with regulatory standards.

RERA Maharashtra Rules and Regulations              

Maharashtra RERA has strict rules to stop bad practices in real estate. Before buying property, check if it’s registered with RERA. The important rules are:

• Every commercial and residential project must be registered with MahaRERA.
• Developers have to share updates on their projects quarterly on the MahaRERA website.

RERA Maharashtra Services             

 In Maharashtra, it’s a must for every residential and commercial project to get registered with MahaRERA. This organization makes sure that real estate builders can’t advertise, book, or sell any project without its approval. MahaRERA Act offers other services too:

• It looks out for the interests of real estate promoters.
• It makes the RERA approval process simpler by providing a single-window system for checks and clearances.

For example, if you want to check the RERA certificate for one of Adani’s projects in Mumbai, you can easily download it from the Adani Realty website.

Some Points Under Real Estate Regulation and Development (RERA)

Security: The RERA act makes sure that 70% of the money you pay as a buyer or investor goes into a special account. The rest goes to builders for building and land expenses only. Builders can’t take more than 10% of the money before you sign a contract.

Transparency: Builders must show you the original plans for their projects. They can’t change the plans without asking you first.

Fairness: RERA says builders must sell properties based on the actual area you use, not just the total area. If a project is late, you can get all your money back, or you can choose to keep your investment and get money every month.

Quality: Builders have to fix any problems with your home within 5 years of buying it. They must do this within 30 days of you telling them about the problem.

Authorization: Regulators can’t advertise, sell, build, invest in, or book land without registering with RERA. Any ads for investments must have a special number from RERA.

Salient Features: 

RERA was made to make sure that housing deals and real estate transactions are fair and clear. Here are the main points of this law:

1. Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) is set up in every state to watch over and solve any arguments about real estate projects in that state.
2. There’s a quick way to settle arguments through a special tribunal and officers who are focused only on solving these issues.
3. All real estate projects must register with RERA. If they don’t follow the rules, RERA can say no to their registration.
4. If a property developer wants to give most of their rights and duties to someone else, they need permission from most of the buyers and RERA.
5. If there’s a problem from either the buyer’s or developer’s side, they both have to pay interest equally on the money involved.
6. If a developer causes problems for the buyer because of land title issues, they have to pay compensation. There’s no limit on how much they have to pay.
7. If someone sees any rule-breaking by a developer, buyer, or agent, they can complain to RERA.
8. While RERA looks into a complaint, it can stop the person complained against from doing anything related to the complaint.
9. If someone isn’t happy with RERA’s decision, they can appeal to a special tribunal.
10. If a developer doesn’t follow RERA’s orders, they have to pay a penalty, which could be up to 5% of the property’s cost.
11. If the tribunal’s orders are ignored, the penalty could be up to 3 years in jail or a fine of up to 10% of the project’s cost, or both.
12. If a company breaks this law, the person in charge at that time and the company will be punished.
13. Regular courts can’t handle matters that fall under RERA or the tribunal. They can’t stop RERA or the tribunal from doing their job either.

RERA Benefits to Home buyer

RERA brings benefits for buyers, promoters, and real estate agents. Here’s how:

1. Standard carpet area: Before RERA, builders could use different methods to calculate prices, leading to confusion. Now, RERA has a fixed formula for carpet area calculation. This stops promoters from inflating prices by exaggerating carpet areas.
2. Reduced builder insolvency risk: Builders often handle multiple projects at once. Before RERA, they could move money between projects freely. But now, RERA says 70% of the funds must stay in one bank account. Builders can only use the money after it’s checked by engineers, accountants, and architects.
3. Limited advance payments: Builders can’t ask for more than 10% of the project cost from buyers as advance payment or application fees. This saves buyers from rushing to find funds and paying a big amount upfront.
4. Buyer’s rights for defects: Within 5 years of getting the property, if there are any structural problems or quality issues, the builder must fix them within 30 days at no extra cost to the buyer.

To determine if a property is RERA compliant, consider the following: Properties exceeding 500 square meters must be registered under the RERA Act before any project launch or advertising. Builders must demonstrate that 70% of the total payment is deposited into a separate escrow account, ensuring it’s not used for other purposes. Additionally, all necessary consents must be obtained before advertising a new project, eliminating practices like early bird discounts and pre-launch offers.