Eight years after its establishment in 2017, Maharashtra’s real estate regulator, MahaRera, is still facing a considerable backlog of unresolved complaints.
Out of the 29,374 complaints filed, 7,310 are still pending, leading to calls from homebuyers, legal experts, and activists for quicker resolutions and stricter enforcement of orders.
While MahaRera has successfully resolved 21,888 cases and conducts both online and offline hearings, the growing number of unresolved cases has raised concerns among consumer advocates. They emphasize the need for more adjudicating officers and additional regional benches to manage the increasing workload.
MahaRera has registered over 50,000 real estate projects—the highest among state regulators—with nearly half located in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region and Pune. However, industry stakeholders have argued that the organization’s capacity to address consumer grievances has not kept pace with its operational scale.
Currently, MahaRera comprises one chairperson, two members, and three adjudicating officers. Activist Godfrey Pimenta from the Watchdog Foundation pointed out that this limited structure struggles to handle the volume of complaints. “Some complaints take two to three years to resolve, and in exceptional cases, up to five years, despite the law requiring resolution within six months. To effectively manage the growing backlog, it’s crucial to increase the number of MahaRera members,” he noted.
Shirish Deshpande, chairman of Mumbai Grahak Panchayat, remarked that Section 20 of the Real Estate Regulatory Authority Act grants the state full authority to appoint additional MahaRera chairpersons and establish further benches. “It has been eight years since MahaRera was established, and the growing backlog is deeply disappointing for those who initially supported its creation,” he said.
Deshpande explained that complaints generally fall into two main categories: “First, homebuyers seeking an exit from the project, demanding refunds with interest due to delays in possession. Second, homebuyers wishing to continue with the project despite the delays, seeking interest on the amount paid as per Section 18 of the Act. In both cases, the authority should act swiftly since the interest rate is already specified in the Rera rules. These matters should not take long to resolve…”
