RERA Compliance Checklist for Promoters: Registration, the 70% Account, Quarterly Updates and Penalties

The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act 2016 turned a builder's promises into statutory duties. For a promoter — a developer, a landowner who develops, a co-operative society or anyone who sells units in a project — compliance is not a form you file once; it runs from before the first advertisement to five years after handover.

This checklist follows the Act itself (section numbers in brackets). Each State authority — HRERA Gurugram and HRERA Panchkula in Haryana, RERA Punjab, RERA Rajasthan — has its own rules, forms and portal on top.

1. Before you market anything: register the project [s. 3–4]

• Mandatory when the land exceeds 500 sq m or the project has more than eight apartments, counting all phases. Each phase is a separate project.
• Nothing before registration: no advertisement, prospectus, booking, sale or offer for sale.
• The application includes: the enterprise's details and past five years of projects (with delays and pending cases), sanctioned plans, layout and specifications, the proposed completion date, the allotment letter, agreement for sale and conveyance formats, the number and carpet area of units, garages, and the names of the architect, engineer, contractor and real-estate agents.
• Declaration on affidavit that you have legal title, that the land is free of encumbrances (or disclosing them), and the time you will take to complete — plus the 70% undertaking below.
• The authority must decide within 30 days; a registration not refused within that time is deemed granted. Registration runs to the declared completion date; an extension of up to one year is available on application for reasons beyond your control, and further only under the State rules.

2. The separate account: 70% of every receipt [s. 4(2)(l)(D)]

Deposit 70% of the amounts realised from allottees in a separate bank account for the project, to be used only for land and construction costs of that project. Withdrawals must be in proportion to the percentage of completion and certified by an engineer, an architect and a chartered accountant. The account is audited within six months of each financial year end by a CA in practice, who certifies that withdrawals matched completion and funds were used for the project.

This is the clause that most often catches promoters who run several projects from one pool of money.

3. Ongoing disclosure and updates [s. 11]

• Keep the project page on the authority's portal current, with quarterly updates on the number and type of units booked, garages booked, approvals taken and pending, and the status of the project.
• Display the RERA registration number and website in every advertisement and prospectus.
• Provide the allottee, at booking, with the sanctioned plans, layout, specifications, the stage-wise schedule including water, sanitation and electricity, and the details of the registered agent.

4. Selling: the rules on money and documents [s. 13–14]

• No more than 10% of the cost of the apartment or plot can be taken as advance or application fee before a written, registered agreement for sale.
• The agreement must be in the form prescribed by the State rules, stating the price, dates of payment, the date of possession, and the interest rate on default for both sides.
• No changes to the sanctioned plans or specifications of an individual apartment without the allottee's written consent, and no changes to the project's common areas without the consent of two-thirds of allottees (minor additions required by the architect excepted).

5. Handover and after [s. 11, 14, 17, 19]

• Hand over possession with the occupancy/completion certificate; execute the conveyance deed to the allottee and the common areas to the association within three months of the OC (or as the State rules provide).
• Defect liability for five years from possession: structural or workmanship defects must be rectified at no cost within 30 days of being notified; failing that, the allottee is entitled to compensation.
• Form the allottees' association within the period in the State rules (typically three months of the majority of units being booked) and hand over documents, plans and accounts.
• If possession is delayed, the allottee may withdraw with a refund plus interest, or stay and receive interest for every month of delay at the prescribed rate (usually SBI's highest MCLR plus 2%) [s. 18].

6. Agents [s. 9–10]

Sell only through registered real-estate agents, and disclose their names in the registration. An agent's registration is valid for the period in the State rules and must be renewed; an unregistered agent exposes both the agent and the promoter to penalties.

What non-compliance costs [s. 59–63]

Default	Penalty
Not registering the project	Up to 10% of the estimated project cost; continued default can bring imprisonment up to three years and/or a further 10%
False information in the application, or contravening any other provision	Up to 5% of the estimated project cost
Not complying with an authority order	Up to 5% of the estimated project cost per day of default
Not complying with an Appellate Tribunal order	Imprisonment up to three years and/or up to 10% of the estimated project cost
Agent not registered / contravening the Act	₹10,000 per day, up to 5% of the cost of the unit

Registration can also be revoked for wilful default, unfair practices or breach of approval conditions, after which the authority can freeze the project account and hand the project to the allottees' association.

The promoter's calendar

• Before launch: land title check, approvals, registration filed, agreement formats prepared, separate account opened, agents registered.
• Each quarter: portal update of bookings, approvals and progress; withdrawal certificates from the engineer, architect and CA.
• Each year: CA audit of the separate account within six months of year end; renew any agent registrations.
• Before the completion date: apply for an extension if needed — a lapsed registration is a default, not a formality.
• At handover: OC, conveyance, association formation, defect-liability tracking for five years.

Our RERA services cover project registration in Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan, the quarterly and annual certifications, and representation before the authority and the Appellate Tribunal.