Source: ETRealty (https://bit.ly/3DsFY89)

Close to four years after the Goa Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act was formulated and notified, the Goa RERA has finally framed norms to return the registration fee paid by an agent or builder.

Real estate agents have to pay up to Rs 1 lakh and real estate developers Rs 50,000 to Rs 10 lakh for registration with RERA. However, if the registration is rejected, the present norms have no scope to return the funds.

The promoter may apply for withdrawal of application for registration of the real estate project within 30 days of submitting it to the authority. In such cases, the registration fee to the extent of 10% or Rs 50,000, whichever is higher, is retained as processing charges, while the remaining amount is supposed to be refunded within 30 days.

“The authority has come across cases of different nature where project exempted from registration as the project received completion certificate prior to the cut off date determined by the government or cases where the RERA registration was rejected due to non-submission of required information,” chairperson of Goa RERA S Kumaraswamy said.Real estate brokerage firms have to pay Rs 1 lakh while an individual real estate agent has to pay Rs 10,000 to register.

“The act and rule is silent about returning the registration fee of the agent in case registration is not accorded. The authority has deliberated in detail the provisions under the said act and rules and has decided to regulate the return of registration fee of real estate project and real estate agent,” Kumaraswamy said.

The RERA has now decided that in the case of an exempted real estate project, the authority may deduct 1% of the registration fee or Rs 1,000, whichever is more, and return the remaining amount.

Builders who want to withdraw their registration within the 30-day period will have to forfeit 10% or Rs 50,000, while the rest will be returned.

“In the case of a real estate project where registration is rejected after hearing, registration fee to the extent of 10% or Rs 50,000 whichever is more would be deducted. Such projects will be registered with charging fee afresh on furnishing required documents,” he said.

Real estate brokers who want to withdraw their registration within the initial 30 day period will be charged 10% of the registration fee and the remaining amount will be returned. If the registration application was rejected, then 10% or Rs 50,000 will be deducted.

Goa RERA has also decided that all unclaimed fees will be treated as revenue and all future claims will be decided on a case to case basis.