The Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority (MahaRERA) is planning to take strict action against realty developers whose ongoing projects would remain unregistered even after September 1, said a top official of the regulator. “We have received 12,700 applications for registration of ongoing projects. Out of these, we have already processed and registered 8,000 projects. Remaining applications will be processed over the next one week,” said MahaRERA chairperson Gautam Chatterjee. “We will deal with those (project developers) required to be registered but not registered until September 1 in a strict manner.” From September 1, information on all these registered projects will be available on the MahaRERA portal. Following this, homebuyers can send emails about ongoing projects, which are required to be registered but have not registered so far, directly to the regulator, he said on the sidelines of a FICCI- Grant Thornton Advisory conference here. So far, the regulator has received total 30 complaints from homebuyers of ongoing projects and most of them are related to the issue of delay in delivery. MahaRERA has already taken a decision to slap a minimum penalty of Rs 1 lakh or an amount equivalent of its registration fees, whichever is higher, for ongoing projects registration applications to be received between August 3 and August 16. The project registration fee ranges from minimum of Rs 50,000 to Rs 10 lakh depending on the size of the specific project. This quantum of penalty was applicable for all applications received in the office of MahaRERA until 5pm of 16 August. Applications made for registration of ongoing projects after August 16 will be heard on case-to-case basis and the penalty will be decided by the authority. The builder then will have to explain as to why the application cannot be rejected. The government enacted the Real Estate (Regulation & Development) Act 2016 and all the sections of the Act have come into force with effect from May 1 this year. Maharashtra was one of the first states to notify its rules under the Act and establish authority MahaRERA. The builders had to register their ongoing projects with their respective state RERAs within three months and deadline for the same was set at July 31. Without registering their ongoing projects, the developer is not allowed to undertake marketing or selling of their projects. As the rules, if the promoter allegedly contravenes the provision of Section 3 – it deals with registration, selling and marketing of new and ongoing projects - he will be liable to pay penalty up to 10% of the project’s estimated cost as determined by the authority. Until the midnight of July 31, the regulator had received total 10,852 applications for registration of ongoing projects across Maharashtra. The regulator had earlier decided to levy a fine of Rs 50,000 on applications received after the deadline of July 31 until August 2.The regulator had received 500 applications for registration of ongoing projects until August 2.