Publish QR Codes With Ads or Face Rs 50,000 Fine, MahaRERA Tells Housing Developers | Exclusive

Beginning August 1, it will be mandatory for all residential real estate developers to publish a QR code that carries complete details of the project along with ads published or released in Maharashtra, failing which they will be fined up to Rs 50,000.

The Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority (Maha RERA) had ordered property developers in May to publish QR codes along with advertisements. The authority will monitor compliance beginning August. Once a developer is fined for failing to publish the QR code, they will have 10 days to rectify the same in another ad. Further non-compliance shall result in harsher action.

MahaRERA has also made it clear to all developers that the QR code should be boldly legible in all advertisements. People earlier used to visit the MahaRERA website to get details of a particular project, but to make the process and experience more convenient, the regulatory body ordered developers to publish QR codes along with their ads.

MahaRERA has been allotting QR codes to all new residential projects since March. Later, to streamline the process, it also issued QR codes for residential projects that were registered before March.

Real estate developers usually publicise their projects through ads in newspapers and magazines or mass messaging on Twitter, WhatsApp and Instagram. MahaRERA had earlier made it mandatory to publish the project registration number allotted by it with all advertisements along with website details of MahaRERA. This information will now be part of the QR codes made mandatory from August 1.

MahaRERA is of the opinion that homebuyers or investors in residential properties should be able to obtain basic information about the projects in just one click. The QR code which has been allotted to all resisters residential projects shall have information like name of the project, name of the developer, completion date of the project, permissions the developer has obtained for the project, date of the project’s registration with MahaRERA, among others. Potential buyers will also be able to check whether the developer made any changes in the approved and, if so, did the developer renew the registration process and obtain new permissions.