RERA for homebuyers: the rights you actually have

The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act 2016 requires a promoter to register a project above the state threshold before advertising or selling it, to sell on carpet area, and to file quarterly progress updates. Section 18 gives you a remedy when possession is late. All of it depends on you reading the filings first.

What the Act does, and what it does not

Before 2016 a buyer in an under-construction project had a contract drafted by the builder, no reliable way to verify approvals, no visibility on whether the money paid was being spent on that project, and a choice between a consumer forum and a civil suit when things went wrong. The Act changed four things.

It made registration a precondition of selling. A promoter cannot advertise, market, book or sell units in a project that falls above the state threshold until it is registered with the state authority. Registration requires the promoter to file the approvals, the layout, the schedule of completion and details of the land title, and those filings become public.

It made disclosure continuous. Quarterly updates on progress and bookings have to be filed, so the project's own account of itself is on the record and dated.

It fixed the unit of sale. Carpet area as defined in section 2(k) is the basis of sale, which ended the practice of quoting a rate on a super built-up area that the buyer could not measure. The buying process guide explains how carpet, built-up and super built-up relate.

And it created a specialist forum — a state authority, with an appellate tribunal above it — rather than leaving a buyer to a general civil court.

What it does not do matters just as much. Registration is not an endorsement of the project, the developer or the price. The authority does not verify that the project will be built on time or that the specification is good. It does not make the title good; a defective title can be disclosed and the project still registered. It does not cover projects below the state threshold or those completed before the Act. And an order in your favour is not the same as money in your account — execution of orders remains the weakest link in practice. The Act gives you information and a forum. The diligence is still yours.

Checking a registration properly

A registration number printed on a hoarding proves nothing. Numbers are quoted for the wrong phase, for a different project by the same developer, or simply invented, and most buyers never look them up. Look it up on the state authority's own portal — our RERA check tool points you at the right one for each state — and then read what comes back rather than being satisfied that something came back.

Five things to confirm against the entry:

• The project is the one you are buying. Large developments are registered in phases or towers, each with its own number. A valid registration for Phase 1 says nothing about the tower you are being sold in Phase 3.
• The promoter's name matches the party on your agreement. Projects are often registered by a special purpose company or a landowner, while the brand on the brochure is a different entity. Your agreement must be with a party that is actually on the filing, or you must understand exactly how the two are connected.
• Registration is current. Registrations carry a validity period tied to the declared completion date, and that period can be extended. An expired registration, or one extended several times, is a dated statement by the promoter about their own delay.
• The land details and extent match. Survey numbers and the registered extent should correspond to what you are shown. A mismatch means the layout you are being sold is not the layout that was registered.
• The approvals listed are the approvals that exist. The filing lists sanctions and permissions. Any described as applied for or pending is a risk the promoter has disclosed and you are being asked to accept.

Reading the quarterly filings — the most useful hour you will spend

The quarterly updates are the part of RERA almost nobody uses, and they are the most valuable. Each quarter the promoter files where construction has reached, how many units are booked, what approvals have come through, and in many states financial and cost particulars. Read four consecutive quarters side by side and the project tells you the truth about itself.

What to look for in a run of quarterly updates

What you compare	Healthy pattern	What a problem looks like
Physical progress across quarters	Steady movement in the stated stage of work	Two or three quarters with the same reported stage
Declared completion date	Unchanged, or extended once with a reason	Pushed out repeatedly in small steps
Units booked	Gradual increase	Flat for a year, or a large jump with no visible construction
Approval status	Pending items converting to granted	The same approval listed as pending for a year
Promoter's other registered projects	Earlier projects completed near their declared dates	A pattern of extensions across every project they run
Complaints on record	None, or isolated and resolved	Multiple complaints on the same grievance

Two cross-checks are worth the trouble. Compare the reported stage with photographs taken on the site yourself, or by someone you send; a filing claiming structure complete to the tenth floor is falsifiable from the road. And look up the same promoter's other registered projects on the portal. A developer whose previous projects all ran well past their declared dates is telling you what to expect, in their own filings, before you pay. Our builder reviews and project database start from exactly this material.

Carpet area and what you are paying for

Section 2(k) defines carpet area as the net usable floor area within the walls of the apartment, excluding the area covered by external walls, areas under service shafts, and exclusive balcony, verandah and open terrace areas, while including the area of internal partition walls. Agreements must state it, and price must be referable to it.

The practical consequences are these. A quoted rate per square foot is only comparable across projects if both are on carpet area, so ask which basis a rate uses before comparing anything. Balconies and terraces are excluded from carpet area but are frequently charged separately, and that charge should appear as a separate line you can see. And the carpet area in the agreement is the number that binds; if the area measured at possession is materially less, that is a discrepancy you raise in writing immediately, not after you take the keys and register.

When possession is late: section 18

Delay is the commonest grievance, and section 18 is the provision that addresses it. Where the promoter fails to complete or is unable to give possession in accordance with the terms of the agreement for sale, or by the date specified, the buyer has a choice.

You may withdraw from the project, and the promoter is liable to return the amount received from you, with interest and with compensation, in the manner provided by the Act and the state rules. Or you may continue in the project and claim interest from the promoter for every month of delay until possession is handed over. The choice is the buyer's, not the promoter's, and electing to stay in does not waive the interest for the delay.

The rate of interest is prescribed by the rules framed by each state, usually by reference to a benchmark lending rate plus a margin, so the applicable rate is a state rules question and should be confirmed from the rules in force rather than from a figure quoted online. The same rate, under the Act's scheme, applies to default on either side — which is why a buyer who delays a payment is charged on the same basis.

What to do practically, in order. Write to the promoter, by email and by registered post, referring to the possession date in your agreement and asking for a dated revised schedule. Keep paying any instalments that are genuinely due, because stopping payment gives the promoter a counter-claim and complicates your own case. Collect the agreement for sale, all payment receipts and bank statements, the registration entry as it stands, the quarterly filings showing the stated progress, and your correspondence. Then file with the authority. Do not accept an oral assurance of a new date, and be careful with any waiver or settlement document the promoter asks you to sign at possession, because such documents often give up the delay claim entirely.

Filing a complaint

A complaint goes to the regulatory authority of the state where the project is located. The procedure is set by each state's rules, and the shape of it is the same everywhere.

The complaint route, stage by stage

Stage	What happens	What you should do
Complaint	Filed with the state authority in the form prescribed by its rules, with the fee the rules set	State the relief you want precisely — refund with interest, or interest for delay — and annexe the documents
Notice to the promoter	The authority issues notice and the promoter files a reply	Read the reply carefully; it is the first time you see their defence in writing
Hearing	Heard by the authority or an adjudicating officer, depending on the relief sought	Appear, in person or through an advocate; an unexplained absence can cost you the matter
Order	A written order granting or refusing relief, with directions	Obtain a certified copy; the appeal period runs from the order
Appeal	To the state appellate tribunal, within the period set by the state rules	Diarise the deadline the day you receive the order
Execution	Recovery of amounts ordered, through the mechanism the state provides	Expect this to be the slowest stage and budget patience for it

Fees and timelines vary by state and are revised, so take both from the current rules of the relevant state authority rather than from any general source, this one included. Two points of general application: relief in the nature of compensation is dealt with by an adjudicating officer while other relief goes to the authority, so framing your prayer correctly matters; and buyers in the same project with the same grievance often file together, which spreads cost and carries more weight than a single complaint.

Projects outside RERA, and what that means

Not every property transaction is covered. Projects below the state threshold of land area or number of units fall outside registration. Projects that had received a completion certificate before the Act commenced are outside it. A resale purchase from an existing owner is a transfer between two private parties and is not a promoter sale at all, though the underlying project may still be registered, which is useful to you. Plot sales below the threshold, and small redevelopment or renovation work, are generally outside.

Being outside RERA does not make a property unsafe. A completed building with a clear title and an occupancy certificate is in many ways a lower-risk purchase than a registered project two years from completion. What it means is that the protections you were relying on do not exist here: there are no quarterly filings to read, no section 18 remedy for delay because there is nothing being built, and no specialist authority to complain to. The burden shifts entirely to title diligence, to the occupancy certificate and approvals, and to the agreement you sign. Use the documents checklist and an advocate of your own choosing, and remember that a consumer forum or a civil court is still open to you.

Joint ownership: get it right at the start

Most homes are bought in more than one name, and the structure is usually decided casually at booking. It affects loans, tax and succession, and it is awkward to change later because a change in shares is a transfer, with stamp duty and tax consequences.

Hold either as joint tenants or, far more commonly in India, as tenants in common with defined shares. Define the shares in the deed itself. Where shares are not stated, disputes later start from a presumption of equality regardless of who actually paid, which is rarely what anybody intended.

Three practical links. On loans, lenders generally require every co-owner to be a co-borrower, and all co-borrowers are jointly liable for the whole EMI — not for a share of it. On tax, rental income and capital gains are assessed in each co-owner's hands in proportion to their share, and deductions follow the same proportion, so a co-owner who contributed nothing cannot usefully claim a deduction. On succession, a share held as tenants in common passes under the deceased owner's will or by intestate succession; it does not pass automatically to the surviving co-owner. If that is what you intend, a will is how you achieve it.

Keep the payment trail aligned with the shares. Where one co-owner pays everything and the deed records an equal share, you have created a question that a tax officer, a lender or a family member can ask later. Pay in the proportion recorded, from accounts in the respective names.

The frauds, and the check that defeats each one

These are not exotic. They persist because the check that stops them takes a few days and most buyers skip it.

Common frauds and the specific check that prevents them

The fraud	How it works	The check that defeats it
Double or multiple sale	The same unit or plot is sold to two or more buyers, often with gaps between the registrations	A fresh encumbrance certificate for the full statutory period, taken immediately before registration — not one dated three months earlier
Forged title documents	Fabricated or altered deeds, or a seller impersonating the owner	Certified copies of the parent and current deeds from the sub-registrar, plus the title chain traced back through the revenue and registration records by your own advocate
Unconverted agricultural land	Farmland sold as a housing plot, with conversion described as pending or in process	The conversion order itself, and the revenue record showing the current classification; no conversion, no payment
Unapproved layout	Plots sold in a layout never sanctioned by the planning authority; roads and services never come, and regularisation may be impossible	The sanctioned layout plan with the authority's number, verified at the authority's own office against the survey numbers
Misused general power of attorney	A broadly drafted POA is used to sell or mortgage a property the holder does not own	Insist on the owner executing the deed; if a POA is unavoidable, see the original, confirm it is registered where required, and verify directly with the owner that it is subsisting
Booking in an unregistered project	Money collected before registration, under a letter of intent, expression of interest or pre-launch offer	No payment until the project appears on the authority's portal with a number that matches the phase being sold
Cash component	Part of the price demanded in cash and kept off the deed	Refuse; an under-stated consideration is your problem on resale, on capital gains and on any claim you later make
Approvals shown that belong elsewhere	Sanctions for a different survey number or a different phase shown as though they cover your unit	Match every approval to the survey number and phase in your own agreement, line by line

Two habits protect against most of this. Never pay anything, including a token or booking amount, before the project is registered and your advocate has seen the title documents — recovery of a pre-launch payment is slow and often incomplete. And appoint your own advocate, paid by you. The builder's panel lawyer and the agent's recommendation are not your advisers.

Before you pay anything

A short sequence that catches most of what goes wrong. Look up the registration on the state portal and confirm it covers your exact phase and unit. Download and save the entry with the date. Read the last four quarterly filings and compare them with the site. Check the same promoter's other registered projects for a pattern of extensions. Have your own advocate examine the title chain and take a fresh encumbrance certificate. Confirm the carpet area and the price basis in the draft agreement. Read the possession date, the delay clause and the specification annexure as the three clauses that matter most. Keep every receipt.

Then, and only then, pay. The buying process guide sets out the full sequence, the documents checklist is what your advocate works from, and the RERA check tool is the first step. If you are buying from abroad, the NRI guide covers the additional layer of FEMA compliance, power of attorney and the remittance trail.