Real Estate: MahaRERA Sets Two-Year Tenure for SRO Appointees to Prevent Conflict of Interest

Mumbai, 13th January 2025: The Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority (MahaRERA) has decided to limit the tenure of appointees in various Self-Regulating Organisations (SROs) assisting the regulator with housing project registration to a maximum of two years. This is to avoid any conflict of interest that may arise.

Apart from this, MahaRERA has also decided that the appointees should be individually subject matter specialist in legal, financial and technical matters, which is needed during the housing project’s registration process.

MahaRERA Chairman Manoj Saunik said, “While registering a new housing project with MahaRERA, the project promoters expect a seamless experience and support from the SROs. The developers are also members of the SROs. By having SROs, MahaRERA has ensured them to officially be the link and do away with Agents or other intermediaries. However, due to lack of subject matter experts, this objective remains unachieved. Therefore, MahaRERA has taken the crucial decision with regards to the SROs representatives to enable registration of new housing projects as per the expectations and consistency.

The real estate projects are subjected to strict legal, financial and technical scrutiny while issuing a registration number by MahaRERA. This is possible only when the representatives of the SROs are experts in each of these domains and would be able to help their respective members. Therefore, the representatives being subject matter experts is a must. Moreover, MahaRERA has also set a tenure of the representatives to a maximum of 2 years.

MahaRERA has taken the decision to ensure the new housing projects get MahaRERA registration numbers as soon as possible, and to provide correct guidance to developers. We expect active cooperation is from all concerned.”

In a communication to the SROs, MahaRERA has directed to replace those representatives who have completed 2 years, with immediate effect.

Presently, there are 7 SROs recognised by MahaRERA. They are NAREDCO West Foundation, CREDAI-MCHI, CREDAI Maharashtra, Builders Association of India, Marathi Bandhkam Vyavsayik Association, Brihanmumbai Developer Association and CREDAI-Pune.

Every housing project is mandatory to be registered with MahaRERA and obtain a registration number, as per the terms and conditions laid down in the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016. Developers of all housing projects are not permitted to advertise, promote and sell unless they have a MahaRERA registration number.

Having knowledge of legal, financial and technical aspects play an important role in determining the future of any housing project. Prior to issuing a registration number, MahaRERA scrutinises each proposal on these three criteria. Representatives of SROs appointed at MahaRERA officially help their respective member promoters in the registration process. Observations and remarks made during the scrutiny are shared with these representatives who in turn assist the member promoters to get them fulfilled.

Therefore, in order to seamlessly assist the member promoters, SROs should appoint representatives having domain expertise in at least one of the legal, economic and technical streams. MahaRERA provides only one seat from each of the SROs. Hence, it should be ensured that their representatives are present on a rotational basis and as per requirement of their members.