According to a senior state government official, the developers have violated the Act by advertising both new and existing projects between May 1 and June 3 without registering them under the Act. “We have issued the notices under Section 3 of the Act that says that a developer cannot advertise a project without registering it with the RERA Authority,” the official said, adding that a 15-day window has been given to defaulters to revert with responses.

The official also said as per Section 59 of the Act, the violations of such rules can lead to penalties of up to 10% of the total project cost.

Last month, realtors’ body NAREDCO had submitted a representation to the ministry of housing and urban poverty alleviation, seeking clarity on advertisement and sale of the ongoing projects. “Section 3 (1) of the Act prohibits advertisements for all projects (ongoing/future) without registration with the real estate regulator. This provision has come into effect from May 1, 2017,” the ministry had responded.

According to the Act, Section 3 (1) specifies that “no promoter shall advertise, market, book, sell or offer for sale, or invite persons to purchase in any manner any plot, apartment or building…,in any real estate project or part of it, in any planning area, without registering the real estate project with the Real Estate Regulatory Authority established under this Act.”

For the ongoing projects, this section provides that the promoter should make an application to the authority for registration of the project within a period of three months from the date of commencement of this Act.

RERA was notified by the ministry of housing, urban development and poverty alleviation on May 1 last year. All states were required to notify real estate rules, including the general rules and the agreement for sale rules, and establish the real estate regulatory authorities and the appellate tribunals by April 30, 2017, as the Act would commence its full operation from May 1.

Meanwhile, Haryana, which is yet to finalise the rules for the Act, has started registering projects under the draft rules. “So far around 23 projects have been registered with RERA in Haryana of which majority projects are from Gurugram,” the state government official said.

Haryana’s RERA enforcement framework is now operating only under draft rules. As the rules are yet to be notified, the current authority is interim in nature and will take some time to appoint a full-fledged authority.