A matter of concern for MahaRERA is the closed and near-closed housing projects in the state. As per the direction of MahaRERA Chairman, Chief Advisor of MahaRERA recently held a meeting with all the six self regulatory bodies of project developers (builders) at MahaRERA headquarters in Mumbai to see what can be done to start these projects. It was decided to form six conciliation groups consisting of senior and experienced members of these organizations to initiate these projects.
It was also decided in this meeting to start the revival efforts from the projects which were closed even though 70 percent of the work was completed initially.
A total of six Self Regulatory Organizations (SROs) of developers are registered with MahaRERA. In this NAREDCO West Foundation, CREDAI-MCHI, CREDAI MAHARASHTRA, BUILDERS ASSOCIATION OF INDIA, MARATHI BANDHKAM VYAVSAYIK ASSOCIATION and Brihanmumbai Developers Association are included.
At present 5756 projects are lapsed in the state. Out of these, 1882 projects are in which 70 per cent of the work has been completed and yet to be completed. All these projects are not registered with the self-regulatory bodies. Out of these 624 projects are registered with these institutions. It has been decided to start the efforts to revive these projects from these 624 projects.
For this, developers’ organizations will be given complete details of these 624 projects. It includes 309 projects in Mumbai, Thane, Palghar, Raigad, 220 in Pune, 20 in Nagpur, 29 in Aurangabad, 41 in Nashik and 5 in Amravati. These regulatory bodies have agreed to help with the rest of the project even if they are not members. These projects will be taken up in the next phase.
For revival of these stalled projects, MahaRERA has divided them into 4 groups according to their current status. The first group includes projects that can be completed without compromising the rights of home buyers.
The second group will remain where there is a need to reconcile developers and home buyers. In the third group are projects that require the intervention of MahaRERA due to some difficulties in terms of local authorities or lending banks. The fourth group includes projects where the developer is missing and the home buyer can complete the project by replacing the developer.
In the first 4 phases of the above category, multi-level action is expected. E.g. As the project is stalled, the concerned developer will have to be induced to seek extension. Where there is a possibility of conciliation between the developer and the consumer, the representatives of consumer organizations should be involved. Such an application has to be made detailing the manner in which intervention is required by MahaRERA in respect of local authorities and banks.
Considering the seriousness and scope of this issue, these regulatory bodies should appoint experienced and senior members as heads of the conciliation groups to be constituted for this purpose.
These intermediary groups will include project architects, financial institutions, related developers, housing associations or home buyers and conciliators. This group will initially meet with the concerned developers in person or through a vision system to understand the reasons behind the closure of the project. The root cause of project closures will be explored. Can this project be revived after that? If it happens, they will give a report to MahaRERA about what can be done for it.
It will be insisted that only the developers come to these meetings of the conciliation groups, but representatives of the developers may also attend as per need. But in that case the representative on behalf of the developer. There should be decision making authority or the developer himself should be present along with his representative.
Initially, it was decided to consider projects in which more than 70 percent of the work has been completed or more than 70% of the funds have gone towards development. This will include all the projects registered with the developer’s organization or not. This list will be given to them by MahaRERA.
If there is a large number of such closed projects in an area and there is a need for more groups, the number of groups can be increased.
Distribution of Lapsed projects
624 projects as registered with SROs.
CREDAI- Maharashtra 221
CREDAI- MCHI 138
NAREDCO 168
MBVA 36
BAI 27
BDA 34
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