Pay deficit amounts or will revoke registration: HRERA to Mahira Developers

HRERA on February 7 got a FIR registered against the developer and said all steps would be taken to ensure projects are completed and homebuyers get relief

The Haryana Real Estate Regulatory Authority (HRERA) has issued directions to Mahira Developers and its sister companies to deposit the deficit amount of its five projects in the escrow account (RERA) failing which the authority would revoke the registration of these projects.

An incomplete project of Mahira Homes Society in Gurugram’s Sector 68. (Parveen Kumar/HT Photo)

The authority on February 7 got a FIR registered against the developer and said that all steps would be taken to ensure that the projects are completed and homebuyers get relief. A senior HRERA official said that they had estimated that more than ₹300 crore was deficient in the five project accounts of the developer.

Gurugram HRERA chairman, Arun Kumar, said that to resolve the issue the authority had directed the developer to deposit the money that has been diverted from the RERA project accounts. “The promoter has maintained that the work is stuck because there is a freeze on the bank accounts of the developers. We are asking the developer to deposit the money withdrawn from these accounts and we shall unfreeze the same. If the money is not deposited then we shall proceed with the process of revocation of the RERA registrations of the five projects,” he said.

On May 9, 2022, the department of town and country planning had cancelled the licence of the Sector 68 project of Mahira Developers. This had triggered a series of issues for the developer as several loopholes were found in the documentation and guarantees submitted to the government. The developer has four other projects in Sector 63A, Sectors 95, 103 and 104 and work on all these is pending.

Around 5000 homebuyers have invested their money in these five projects, and have been requesting the property developer and government authorities to get these projects delivered.

On February 7, the HRERA Gurugram got a FIR registered against the developer alleging in its complaint that the promoter had illegally diverted funds from the escrow account to different entities, including its own subsidiary companies and cheated the innocent allottees by not investing their money in the project as required under the Act of 2016. “We have lodged a FIR against the developer for diversion of funds and misrepresentation of facts. We will take this matter to a logical conclusion as a large amount of money belonging to innocent buyers is involved,” said Kumar.

Kumar added that the authority had also roped in an agency to conduct the economic feasibility of these stalled projects to prepare a comprehensive action plan for completing the projects at the earliest. “A team of officials from HRERA and other agencies also visited all the five incomplete projects and assessed the situation on the ground. All efforts will be made to ensure these issues are resolved within constraints,” he said.

Mahira Developers chairman, Sikandar Chhoker, did not respond to phone calls and messages.

Earlier, when asked about the matter, Singh had maintained that the developer was committed to delivering the projects but work had been halted due to a freeze on the accounts by HRERA.