Its been barely a month since the RERA Act was put in place and the Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) has already penalised a real estate agent (firm) of Rs 1.20 lakh. Last week, RERA had issued a show cause notice to Sai Estate Consultant, for misleading the general public.

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The hearing lasted for almost one and half hour and a fine was imposed on the consultant, which they have decided to pay. The show cause notice (copy available with DNA) was issued on June 1 to Sai Estate Consultant, under the subject of unfair trade practice.

The notice signed by Legal Adviser to MahaRERA, read, "The MahaRERA has came across the advertisement given by you in a daily newspaper, on June 1, 2016. Since you are registered as a real estate agent with this authority, you are duty bound to take care while advertising any project that there should not be any misleading representation regarding the project. It appears that this is a deliberate attempt on your part to cause impression in the mind of general public that the project that you are advertising is duly registered with MahaRERA."

Among other directions mentioned in the order, it has asked the consultant to withhold the advertisement with immediate effect and rectify hoardings across the city by displaying MahaRERA number.

The order also restrained the consultant from advertising any project which isn't registered with MahaRERA. Dr Sanjay Chaturvedi, representing Sai Estate Consultant said, "We presented our side to the authority and asked to pay penalty. The client will pay it and abide by the order. It was a suomotto notice."

...& ANALYSIS

  • The aim of RERA is to bring in uniformity, discipline amongst builders and brokers and safeguard homebuyers. Following this order, the expectation is that every other builder and broker will take the authority more seriously and abide by the law.