MahaRERA Relief: State Appoints 12 Dedicated Recovery Officers To Expedite Homebuyer Refunds

Conceding to a long-standing demand, the state government has appointed 12 designated recovery officers under the district collectors of six districts to implement recovery warrants issued by the Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority (MahaRERA). This comes as a huge respite to hapless homebuyers who were demanding speedy recovery from errant builders and developers.

As per the provisions in the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, the recovery warrants are issued under Section 40(1), requiring property attachments and dues recovery from errant developers. The same provision is applicable to errant buyers as well. But, the warrants issued by the MahaRERA are the majority against the builders and developers.

Although the authorities have so far issued 1,342 recovery warrants, only 316 have been executed by the district collectors, who are designated for the recovery under the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code, 1966. The MahaRERA has been empowered as a civil court that issues warrants after hearing both sides and issues recovery warrants.

The MahaRERA and the homebuyers constantly followed up with the state government and the district collectors to speed up the implementation of the recovery warrants. Recently, the issue figured in the state legislative council, and while replying to this, Revenue Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule assured that the recovery warrant cases would be resolved within the next three months.

Since just 23.5% of cases were expedited, the amount recovered from the developers was Rs214.21 crore, out of the total Rs985.23 crore.

The state order issued on Tuesday designates the district collectors of Mumbai City, Mumbai Suburban, Thane, Palghar, Raigad and Pune as the coordination officers to recover the amount as per the orders pronounced by the MahaRERA. The additional collectors and the additional district magistrates in respective districts will be the designated recovery officers. The district collectors will distribute the workload among the two officers in each district and submit a report on recovery to the state government and the MahaRERA, says the order.

It is said that the Mumbai suburban and Pune districts alone account for over 60% of the total outstanding recovery amount. While the Mumbai Suburban has 540 complaints with a recovery amount of Rs424.79 crore, out of which just Rs80.49 crore are said to be recovered. With 274 complaints totalling Rs219.71 crore, Pune district comes next. The district collector’s office in Pune has recovered so far Rs42.31 crore based on the recovery warrants.