Mumbai: Web portals like housing.com and 99 acres have been sent a notice by MahaRERA after it received a complaint from the Mumbai Grahak Panchayat (MGP) against realty advertisements being published on such sites. Agents need to be registered with MahaRERA to be able to publicise any real estate project. A hearing on the same will be conducted by the end of this month.
The case was heard by senior MahaRERA member Satbir Singh and B.D. Kapadnis on July 29. At the hearing, these portals requested for some more time to give an explanation on the same. None of the portals like makaan.com, magicbricks.com were registered with MahaRERA. The notice sent by the regulatory authority asked the portals if they were registered with MahaRERA as an 'agent.'
"The portals were not registered with the authority and hence they have requested and extended the hearing to August 29," said Shirish Deshpande, MGP chairman.
The Asian Age had reported in its July 6 edition about MGP's letter against such web portals. “These portals are liable to get registered because they influence the home buyers,” added Deshpande.
Section 9(1) of the RERA act does not allow any individual to indulge in any activity to facilitate sale or purchase of a flat without registering with the authority. Thus, MGP has approached the authority seeking compliance of the act and directed the portals to the MahaRERA. This paper tried contacting Mr Singh to get his views on the same, but he was unavailable for a comment.
