How to Verify a Project RERA Registration Before You Pay Anything

What Section 3 requires

Section 3 of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 addresses registration of real estate projects, providing that a promoter shall not advertise, market, book, sell or offer for sale, or invite persons to purchase, in any manner any plot, apartment or building in a real estate project without registering it with the Real Estate Regulatory Authority, subject to the exceptions and thresholds in the section.

Section 4 deals with the application for registration and what the promoter must submit, which is why registration also produces a body of disclosed information rather than just a number.

Why the check is worth more than the number

Confirming that a registration exists is the first benefit. The second is what the registration record contains: the declared completion timeline, details of the land and approvals, and information about the promoter and the project.

That gives you something to compare against what you have been told in the sales office. A declared timeline on the authority record that differs from the possession date in the brochure is a discrepancy worth raising before you pay, not after.

How to check

• Identify the State authority for the state where the project is located, since RERA is administered at State level.
• Search the authority official portal for the project by name, promoter or registration number.
• Compare the declared timeline with the possession date you have been given.
• Check whether the registration is current, and whether there are extensions recorded.
• Look for complaints or orders relating to the promoter, where the authority publishes them.

What the absence of registration tells you

If a project that appears to be covered is not registered, that is a substantial finding rather than a technicality. It means the promoter is marketing without the disclosure and oversight the Act contemplates, and it means the information you would otherwise be able to verify does not exist in a public record.

Some projects fall outside the registration requirement because of the thresholds and exceptions in Section 3. A promoter relying on that should be able to tell you which exception applies, and a promoter unable to answer the question clearly is itself informative.

A note on portals

This article deliberately does not list portal addresses. Government web addresses change, and a stale link in a legal article is worse than no link, both because it wastes your time and because incorrect addresses in this space are a known vector for fraud.

Search for your State real estate regulatory authority and confirm you are on an official site before entering anything. Where you are unsure, an advocate or a property professional in your state can point you at the right one.