MahaRERA for Buyers: What Verification Proves — and What It Does Not

Checking a project's MahaRERA registration has become a standard step before booking a flat, and rightly so. It is also frequently over-relied on. A registration number tells you something real, but it does not tell you that a project is sound, that the promoter will perform, or that the flat you are being shown is the flat you will receive.

This article explains what verification actually establishes, and what a buyer still has to check separately.

When registration is required

The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 requires registration of a real estate project, subject to exemptions in Section 3(2). Under Section 3(2)(a), registration is not required where the land proposed to be developed does not exceed 500 square metres, or the number of apartments proposed to be developed does not exceed eight, inclusive of all phases.

Because the clause is framed as an exemption with an "or", the threshold test generally requires registration where both limits are exceeded — subject to the other statutory exemptions in Section 3(2), and to any reduction of the threshold by the appropriate Government.

The practical consequence is that the absence of a registration number is not automatically a red flag. A genuinely small project may be outside the requirement. What matters is whether the exemption actually applies, and that is a question about the project, not about the promoter's assurance.

What to check on the portal

MahaRERA maintains a public portal on which registered projects can be searched. Verification is worth doing yourself rather than accepting a screenshot from a sales office. Look at:

• That the registration exists and corresponds to the project you are actually being sold — the same promoter, the same location, the same phase.
• The promoter's details, and whether the entity you are contracting with is the registered promoter.
• The registration validity, including whether the proposed completion date has passed and whether any extension has been granted.
• The disclosures and periodic updates the promoter has filed, and whether they are current.
• The project details as registered — building particulars, sanctioned plans and approvals disclosed, and the number of units.
• Any complaints or orders publicly available in relation to the promoter or the project.

A pattern worth noticing: a registration that exists but whose updates stopped, or whose completion date has passed without extension, tells you more than the number itself.

The 10% rule

Section 13(1) of the Act is the provision buyers most often need and least often know. A promoter may not accept more than ten per cent of the cost of the apartment, plot or building as an advance payment or application fee without first entering into a written agreement for sale and registering that agreement.

In practice this means that a demand for a substantial payment at booking stage, before any registered agreement for sale exists, is not something a buyer simply has to accept. Section 13(2) also requires the agreement to specify the particulars of development, the specifications, the payment schedule and the date of possession.

The agreement for sale is where a buyer's real protection lives. Carpet area, the possession date, the specifications, what happens on delay, and what the promoter may change unilaterally are all determined there — not by the registration number.

What portal verification does not prove

This is the part most buyer guides skip. Registration is a disclosure and regulatory regime. It is not a certification of the project by the State, and it does not answer:

• Whether the promoter has clear and marketable title to the land, and what encumbrances exist on it.
• Whether the approvals disclosed are complete, current and adequate for what is being built.
• Whether the specific flat being sold to you is free of competing claims.
• Whether the promoter is financially capable of completing the project.
• Whether the agreement being put in front of you actually reflects what you have been told verbally.

These require examination of the title chain, the approvals and the agreement itself. A buyer who verifies the registration and signs the agreement unread has done the easy half of the diligence.

Carpet area means something specific

One of the Act's more useful reforms was to define carpet area, so that promoters across the country are describing the same thing when they quote a number. Before the Act, "super built-up" and similar terms were used inconsistently, and a buyer comparing two projects was often not comparing like with like.

Check that the area stated in the registered particulars, the area in the agreement for sale and the area you have been quoted verbally are the same figure on the same basis. Where a brochure quotes a larger figure on a different basis, that is not automatically improper — but the agreement should make plain which figure you are contracting for.

Agents, and what recourse exists

The Act also provides for registration of real estate agents. A buyer dealing through an intermediary can check whether that agent is registered, which is a modest but real indicator.

Where something goes wrong, the Act establishes the Authority as a forum for complaints, with an appellate tribunal above it. Orders passed in such proceedings are, in the ordinary course, published — which is why searching for existing complaints and orders against a promoter before booking is worth the few minutes it takes. A promoter with a pattern of adverse orders is telling you something the brochure will not.

A sensible sequence

Verify the registration on the portal yourself and note the registered particulars. Obtain the draft agreement for sale and read it against those particulars, paying attention to carpet area, possession date and the delay provisions. Have the title and approvals examined independently. Do not part with more than the statutory limit before a registered agreement exists. And keep your own record of what was represented to you.

Our due diligence and RERA documentation services cover title and approval examination and agreement review for buyers, as well as compliance documentation for promoters. There is no consultation fee — contact us.