Industrial Estates And Units Come Under Ambit Of Rera

Is the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act (RERA) only applicable to residential developments or also to industrial estates and units? The country’s various RERA authorities, as well as MahaRERA and its appellate tribunals, have interpreted RERA provisions, forcing litigants and their attorneys to seek clarification from the government.

The purpose of RERA is to protect the interests of apartment purchasers “all construction activities carried out for residential and commercial use” is how RERA defines an apartment. The latter includes office, industrial, and related services; Consequently, RERA is directly applicable to industrial estates and industrial units that involve the construction of the aforementioned industrial building. However, industrial units and estates are not included in RERA’s scope, according to MahaRERA and its appellate tribunal.

The Tamil Nadu RERA Appellate Tribunal, in a recent order, held that all types of construction activities are considered real estate projects and that all the provisions of RERA are equally applicable whenever such projects are sold as under-construction properties. In contrast, the situation in Maharashtra is quite different.

In the most recent case of M/s Techno Drive Engineering Private Limited v/s Renaissance Indus Infra Private Limited, despite the fact that the real estate project was registered with MahaRERA, both the appellate tribunal and the latter surprisingly ignored this aspect and rejected the petition on the grounds that industrial units are not covered by RERA,”.

Due to the project’s delayed possession, the petitioners were denied interest in the upcoming industrial units they had reserved and this stands in contrast to a landmark judgement of 2017 decision made by the Bombay High Court in the case Neelkamal Suburban Realtors Pvt Ltd v/s the Union of India. All of the RERA’s provisions come into effect when a real estate project is registered with his RERA, according to the judgment.

The MahaRERA portal does have a provision to register industrial projects, and many such upcoming industrial units/estate projects are already registered on the portal. This also indicates that these industrial projects are within the purview of MahaRERA. However, the litigants and their attorneys have been perplexed by the preceding case’s order, so they have asked the government for clarification.

Thereafter, if the government does not resolve this issue, buyers will not be protected from errant developers because industrial units that are likely to be constructed in the future will not be registered with MahaRERA. To ensure that the states adhere uniformly to RERA policies and decisions, a circular should be sent to them. This is the urgent requirement for effective central coordination. A classic illustration of this is when RERA is applied to industrial buildings. Regardless of whether the same applies, a policy decision is required because RERA is a central law.