MUMBAI: The Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority has said mere conditional permission for conversion of an agricultural plot to a non-agricultural one outside urban areas without offering any infrastructure can be termed only as an ongoing project and hence is required to be registered under RERA.
Permission to convert a plot from agriculture to non-agriculture use is only the beginning of the process and is completed when the tehsildar records that all conditions imposed stand fulfilled and that constitutes a “completion certificate”, clarified MahaRERA. Dealing with “plotted development” outside urban areas, MahaRERA on August 10 directed a developer to immediately register one such project on finding that conditions imposed in an almost decade old nod for non agriculture (NA) use by Raigad collector remained unfulfilled.
“The very nomenclature of the completion certificate means that the premises are now complete and fit for human habitation’’ said MahaRERA chairperson Ajoy Mehta. It means the land must pass a ‘legal and usable’ test, he said. The NA use will commence when the tehsildar records all conditions are fulfilled, that’s when status of land changes from agriculture to non-agriculture.
Mehta also directed the promoter-developer not to advertise, sell or permit bookings of any NA plots in a project called Amarai in Kolad for sale of NA plots till it is registered under Section 3 of Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act (RERA). He also imposed a penalty of Rs 50,000 to be paid to MahaRERA for flouting the provision of the Act in failing to register an ongoing project. “Facilities that were promised and those enumerated in the NA order have not been given, thus the property remains devoid of facilities to enable a reasonable human to enjoy it…hence the project does not have a CC till date,’’ said the order.
Aamrai Kolad Plot Owners Welfare Association had last year filed a complaint before the MahaRERA and Sai Developers and others. According to their lawyer Zaman Ali, in May 2012, the Raigad district collector had in its conditional NA permission directed the developer to construct infrastructural facilities including roads, storm water drains, sewage lines, water supply and develop open spaces, within two years. Soon after the permission, the developer advertised the project, promising infrastructural amenities and possession period of one year on payment of development charges of Rs 50,000 per plot. The complaint is that despite the payment, the project ‘remained incomplete’’.
After RERA came into effect on May 1, 2017, in October 2017, the developer issued fresh ads for remaining unsold plots offering amenities including a swimming pool. But with infrastructural facilities and amenities not provided, the project would fall under ambit of RERA as an on-going project, requiring registration, said the association.
The developer through its lawyer Tanmay Ketkar argued the project was complete in 2014, having complied with all NA conditions, and all plots are sold, hence it is not an on-going project and the complaint is an “mala fide’’ harassment. Some of the members have even constructed bungalows and are residing in them.
Mehta said in case of a plotted development, it was “mandatory’’ for the developer to inform the tehsildar of its NA use and that all amenities as agreed have been completed too. He noted that the developer failed to show that Tahsildar was informed of commencement of NA use of the project. Individual permission of plot holders specifically mentions that an NA order condition was unfulfilled, hence it is an on-going project.
