Of the more than 31515 ongoing
real estate projects
in the state, only 195 projects have established a
complaint redressal cell
to resolve complaints by
home buyers
. In August last year, the
MahaRERA
had directed
developers
to set up a complaint redressal cell and depute at least one complaint redressal officer.
Subsequently, the regulatory authority carried out a review whether the developers had adhered to the directive and found that only 195 developers across the state had set up the cell and posted details of the same on their website.
According to MahaRERA officials, the developers have a casual approach and are apathetic to complaints of the home buyers once the bookings in the projects are completed. During the initial phase, the developers deploy sales and marketing persons to provide information about the project. Subsequently, the home buyers face a difficulty in addressing their queries or resolving complaints regarding the project. The home buyers do not know whom to contact for the same. This leads to misunderstandings and grievances even after completion of the project.
The MahaRERA directions make it mandatory for the developer to display the person’s name and contact details prominently displayed at the project’s site.
“The developers are casual in their approach and do not care about complaints of home buyers. This is reflected in their apathy towards setting up the complaint redressal cell,” said an official.
The MahaRERA has also pointed out that a dedicated complaint redressal cell will help the complainant to get timely access to official and credible information about the project. Additionally, if the developer puts up details of the total number of complaints received and redressed, the project’s credibility would get elevated.
“The establishment of trust in the service sector is necessary for the growth of business. So far, the construction sector has only been recognised as a product sector. Now it has started to grow as a service sector. In such a case, it is the need of the hour to have a grievance redressal mechanism in place. MahaRERA has given instructions to establish a grievance redressal cell in every project,” said MahaRERA chairman Ajoy Mehta.
