Tribunal overturns MahaRERA order

Mumbai: The Maharashtra Real Estate Appellate Tribunal in Mumbai last month overturned the order of MahaRERA (Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority) which had directed Larsen & Toubro (L&T) to reduce the price of a flat, booked by a Malabar Hill resident, in proportion to the reduced area of the flat.

The complainant had booked a flat but later demanded another flat of a similar size on an upper floor, and meanwhile RERA came into force. The tribunal in its order accepted the contention of the L&T that the area of the flat was same, however, earlier the area was calculated as per the Maharashtra Ownership of Flat Act (MOFA), but the methodology to calculate the carpet area changed after the introduction of MahaRERA and hence the carpet area of same flat appeared smaller despite remaining the same.

The tribunal accepted that after RERA came into force, the appellant by mistake had issued an allotment letter mentioning the MOFA area as carpet area but rectified it by two communications later.

The division bench of ‘Maharashtra Real Estate Appellate Tribunal’ comprising of chairperson Indira Jain and member S.S. Sandhu took into consideration contention of L&T that the complainant Alok Kejriwal had booked a flat in 2015 in L&T’s project. In 2015 the area was calculated as per the methodology of the ‘The Maharashtra Ownership of Flats (Regulation of the Promotion, Construction, Sale, Management and Tr-ansfer) Act 1963 (MOFA). Somewhere in February 2017, the complainant requested the  shifting of their booking to another flat on the upper floor. To this request, the respondent issued another allotment letter on June 29, 2017 for new flat, as there was no variation in the area of the new flat.

Meanwhile, MahaRERA came into force and under this Act the methodology to calculate the carpet area changed. The tribunal refused to accept the contention of the complainant that the booking of the flat in 2015 was an independent transaction.