July 10, 2024: the Haryana Real Estate Regulatory Authority (HRERA) in Gurugram imposed a penalty of Rs 5 crore on real estate promoter Vatika for failing to register its project within the required timeframe, violating Section 3(1) of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016.
Vatika received a licence for its residential project, Vatika India Next, in 2013 from the Haryana Town and Country Planning (TCP) department. The promoter was required to apply for RERA registration within three months after the RERA Act was notified in Haryana in 2017. However, Vatika only applied for registration after HRERA took suo motu action based on a 2022 notification by the Haryana government.
Media reports state that Arun Kumar, chairman of HRERA Gurugram, remarked, “It was an ongoing project, and the promoter should have applied for RERA registration well on time to avoid penalties. HRERA registration is mandatory for all ongoing real estate projects where completion certificates were not issued before the Act came into force in 2016.”
What does Section 3(1) of the RERA Act state?
According to Section 3(1) of the Act 2016, no promoter shall advertise, market, book, sell, or offer for sale or invite persons to purchase any plot, apartment, or building, as the case may be, in any real estate project or part of it, in any planning area, without registering the real estate project with the Haryana Real Estate Regulatory Authority established under the Act. Once the promoter submits all mandatory approvals for the project’s registration, the authority then approves the project.
A spokesperson from the Vatika Group commented, “Due to the development of NH-352W passing through our project and the lack of information from GDMA regarding the road alignments, we could not finalize our service estimates, which are mandatorily required by HRERA to process the registration. We have complied with HRERA’s imposition of the penalty and will always respect and adhere to the regulators' decisions with utmost humility.
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