State misses October 31 deadline to notify real estate bill

The state government has missed the October 31 deadline set by the Central government to notify the Maharashtra Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016. Framing of these rules is crucial as it seeks to protect homebuyers and boost sales in the realty sector.

The Central government had set the deadline of October 31 to notify the Act but the state housing department is yet to make the notifications public for objections and suggestions after which the clauses in the Act can be notified.

“The union housing ministry had approached the parliamentary committee to push the deadline by one month which is by the end of November. We are in the process of drafting the clauses and would be made public in for suggestions and objections in another week and would be notified before the upcoming winter session on December 6,” said a state housing department official.

Recently, the Union urban development ministry notified the Act for union territories.The Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat governments have also notified the Act.

The Maharashtra government was previously mulling over to pass its Maharashtra Housing (Regulation and Development) Act, 2012 in order to curb the illegal practices in the real estate sector. However, it has not been successful in implementing its own Act. Now, it has to adopt the Centre’s Act with the ministry of housing and urban poverty alleviation (HUPA) notifying its own Act, which asks every state to have its own set of regulations under the Centre’s Act.

Once the Real Estate Regulatory Authority is implemented, the developers will have to make an escrow account and deposit 70 per cent of the funds required to construct a proposed project and also includes bringing in transparency in terms of submitting the approval plans and architectural plans and also address all the grievances related to the developers cheating buyers in the transactions.