Before you pay a booking amount for an under-construction flat or a plot in a gated layout, check RERA registration before buying by opening the project search at rera.karnataka.gov.in, typing the project name or the promoter's name, and reading the registration certificate the portal serves for that project. Four fields decide whether you go further: the registration number, the project status, the date the registration ends (which is the completion date the promoter declared on affidavit under Section 4(2)(l)(C) of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016), and whether the project page carries the quarterly updates Section 11(1) requires. "RERA approved" is not a status the Act knows. The Authority registers a project on the promoter's own declarations. It does not approve the building plan, the layout or the title.
Part of the RERA and homebuyer disputes practice at S Jain & Attorneys, Bangalore.
This page is for the buyer at the sales office with a cheque book, or paying an online token for a plot on the outskirts of Bengaluru. It covers the portal check, the certificate fields, the promoter's uploads, what it means when the project is not registered, and how RERA registration differs from planning sanction by the BDA, the BMRDA, a city corporation or a panchayat. Title due diligence sits in the property verification checklist, and what to do once possession is already late is in the builder delay guide.
How do I check RERA registration before buying, in ten minutes?
Open Know Project Status on the K-RERA portal, search by project or promoter name, and work through the ten items below with the certificate and the project page open side by side.
- Find the project. The search takes the project name, the promoter or firm name, the application number, the registration number, the district and the taluk, and any one is enough. If the marketed name draws a blank, search the promoter.
- Open the certificate. It is Form C under Rule 6(1) of the Karnataka Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Rules, 2017, digitally signed by the Chairman, with a QR code to validate it. Match the promoter's name and the project address to your booking form.
- Read the registration number. Karnataka numbers run PRM/KA/RERA/, two location codes, PR, a six digit date block and a serial. The date block is the approval date written year, month, day. A number the portal cannot find is not a registration.
- Read the two dates. Condition (iv) says the registration is valid from one date and ends on another. The end date is the completion period the promoter declared under Section 4(2)(l)(C), and Section 5(3) makes that period the life of the registration.
- Check the extension position. Section 6 allows extension for force majeure, and by its proviso for other reasons without the promoter's default, but the extensions in aggregate cannot exceed one year.
- Open the approvals uploaded. Section 4(2)(c) and (d) require the authenticated approvals, commencement certificate and sanctioned plan to accompany the application, and Rule 15(1)(E) puts them on the project page.
- Read the quarterly updates. Section 11(1)(b) to (e) and Rule 15(1)(D) require, within fifteen days of the end of every quarter, the units booked, photographs of each building and floor, and the approvals received, applied for and still to be applied for.
- Read the track record and litigation. Section 4(2)(b) requires five years of past projects with delays and pending cases, and Rule 15(1)(A)(iii) requires past and ongoing litigation about the project to be shown.
- Search the promoter's name in the complaints report and the orders search. Complaints are listed promoter-wise and project-wise, and every order is downloadable.
- Check the agent and save everything. If a broker or channel partner brought you, Section 9 requires that agent to be registered and Section 9(5) requires the number on every sale. Then save the certificate and the project page as PDFs with the date visible, because the portal changes weekly.
Key takeaway. The certificate proves one thing: that the promoter applied under Section 4, made the Section 4(2)(l) declarations on affidavit, and the Authority granted registration under Section 5. Everything else on the page, from the building sanction to the title documents, is the promoter's own upload, and reading it is your job.
What does each field on the K-RERA certificate mean?
The certificate has an identity block, six numbered conditions and a signature block, and a buyer needs conditions (i), (iii) and (iv) more than the rest. The identity block gives the registration number, the project with its survey numbers, village, hobli, taluk and district, and the promoter with its registered office, which should match the name on the receipt you are about to accept.
Condition (i) binds the promoter to the agreement for sale the Act and Rules provide. Condition (ii) binds him to a registered conveyance under Section 17. Condition (iii) restates Section 4(2)(l)(D): seventy per cent of every rupee realised from allottees goes into a separate scheduled bank account, used only for construction and land cost, withdrawn in proportion to completion as certified by an engineer, an architect and a chartered accountant, and audited every year. Condition (iv) gives the validity dates and says the certificate is valid till the ending date unless renewed under Section 6 read with Rule 7. Conditions (v) and (vi) require compliance with the Act and with every other law in force. The signature block carries the Chairman's digital signature, a "Project Approval Date" and the QR code.
Four numbers carry most of the weight, and they are worth fixing in memory before the site visit.
The six digit date block
The block after PR in a Karnataka registration number is the approval date written year, month, day. It is the quickest way to tell a real number from an invented one on a brochure.
Seventy per cent account
Section 4(2)(l)(D) sends seventy per cent of what allottees pay into a separate scheduled bank account, withdrawn only in proportion to completion certified by an engineer, an architect and a chartered accountant.
Ten per cent cap
Section 13(1) bars the promoter from taking more than ten per cent of the price as advance or application fee before a written agreement for sale is signed and registered.
One year of extension
Section 6 allows the Authority to extend a registration, but the extensions in aggregate cannot exceed one year, so a certificate lapses if construction runs a year past the declared date.
Which projects must be registered, and which are exempt?
Every real estate project in a planning area must be registered before the promoter advertises, markets, books, sells or invites anyone to buy a plot, apartment or building in it, and plotted layouts are inside that rule. Section 3(1) is the prohibition. Section 2(zn) defines a real estate project to include "the development of land into plots or apartments" for sale, and Section 2(zk)(ii) makes a person who develops land into plots for sale a promoter whether or not he builds on them.
Section 3(2) lists the exemptions: land not exceeding five hundred square metres or not more than eight apartments, inclusive of all phases, a completion certificate received before the Act commenced, and renovation or redevelopment with no marketing, selling or new allotment. The Explanation makes each phase a stand alone project needing its own registration, so a certificate for Phase 1 says nothing about the tower marketed as Phase 2.
Projects ongoing when the Act commenced had three months to apply under the first proviso to Section 3(1). The Supreme Court in Newtech Promoters and Developers v State of UP (11 November 2021) upheld that proviso and held that the promoter of an incomplete project must register and prescribe fresh timelines for the remaining work. Rule 4 of the Karnataka Rules carves five categories out of "ongoing project", among them layouts whose roads and civic amenity sites were already handed to the local authority and portions covered by a partial occupancy certificate. Those carve-outs bite in older projects: the Karnataka High Court in Provident Housing v K-RERA (2 January 2023) quashed an Authority order as a nullity where a partial occupancy certificate had issued before the Act.
Is "RERA approved" a thing? What registration does and does not certify
No. Registration is granted under Section 5(1) on the promoter's application and declarations, and the Act nowhere calls it an approval. The approvals that make a building lawful come from the competent authority defined in Section 2(p), the local or planning authority with power over the land, and the Act only requires authenticated copies to be filed under Section 4(2)(c) and uploaded under Rule 15(1)(E). In Bengaluru that means a building licence and commencement certificate from the city corporation or the BDA, and for a layout the sanction under Section 17 of the Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act, 1961 from the BDA, the BMRDA or the local planning authority. The Authority issues none of these and does not check them for you.
The Act does police the phrase. Section 7(1)(c) allows revocation for unfair practice, and the Explanation includes a statement that "represents that the promoter has approval or affiliation which such promoter does not have". Section 12 gives a buyer who paid on a false statement in an advertisement, prospectus or model flat the right to compensation and, if he withdraws, to his entire investment back with interest. So "RERA approved" on a brochure is a misdescription the promoter can be held to, but relying on it without opening the portal skips the one check that costs nothing.
| Document | Who issues it | What it proves | What it does not prove |
|---|---|---|---|
| RERA registration certificate (Form C) | K-RERA under Section 5 | The promoter applied, declared a completion date, undertook the seventy per cent account and the prescribed agreement, and is subject to the Act | That the plan is sanctioned, the layout approved, the land converted or the title clear |
| Building licence and commencement certificate | City corporation, BDA or planning authority under Section 14 of the Town and Country Planning Act | The building may lawfully go up as per the sanctioned plan | That the promoter will finish on time or that your unit is on the sanctioned plan |
| Layout sanction and final layout plan | BDA, BMRDA or local planning authority under Section 17 of the Town and Country Planning Act | The sites, roads, parks and civic amenity areas are approved and relinquished under Section 17(2A) | That any site is free of encumbrance or that construction on it is licensed |
| Title deed, encumbrance certificate, khata | Sub-registrar and the municipal or panchayat office | Who owns the land, what charges are registered, who is assessed to tax | Anything about RERA compliance or planning permission |
The Ask Me answer on a layout that is not BDA approved sets out what Section 17(2B) of the Town and Country Planning Act does to a buyer who builds without a final layout plan, and the B khata guide explains why an unapproved layout ends up in the B register.
The project is not registered: can I still buy, and can I still complain?
You can buy, in the sense that a registered sale deed will still pass title under Section 54 of the Transfer of Property Act, 1882, but you will be outside every protection the Act gives and funding a promoter who commits an offence with each booking. Section 59(1) makes him liable to a penalty of up to ten per cent of the estimated project cost, and Section 59(2) adds imprisonment of up to three years, or a further ten per cent, or both, if he continues after the Authority's order. What the buyer loses is everything downstream of registration, from the seventy per cent account and the sworn completion date to the Section 18 refund with interest.
On whether K-RERA will hear a complaint about an unregistered project, the honest answer is that it does in practice, but the route is longer and the outcome less certain. Section 31(1) allows any aggrieved person to complain "for any violation or contravention of the provisions of this Act" against any promoter, and non-registration is itself a contravention of Section 3. The Authority's practice shows in its numbering: the Karnataka High Court's judgment in Provident Housing quotes an Authority order in a complaint numbered CMP/UR, recording that because the project was unregistered the file first sat with the Secretary, who took steps to get the promoter to register, before the complaint was transferred to the Authority for disposal. The portal also publishes a "Projects Under Investigation" list of unregistered projects, with a warning that dealing with them is at the public's own risk, updated every Friday on the promoters' replies to notices.
Two orders show the other side. In complaint CMP/697/2025 the Fifth Additional Bench of K-RERA, on 20 January 2026, dismissed a complaint as not maintainable in one line because the complainant was not an allottee and the project was not registered. And Provident Housing held that where a project was genuinely outside the Act, the Authority's order was a nullity. So a complaint about an unregistered project turns first on whether the project had to register at all, and a buyer who cannot show that the land exceeds five hundred square metres or the units exceed eight should keep the consumer commission in view as the parallel forum.
Common mistake. Treating "registration applied for" as registration. Section 5(2) deems a project registered only if the Authority neither grants nor rejects within thirty days, and even then a number issues within seven days more. Until a number exists on the portal, Section 3 bars the promoter from booking or selling, and no application number, receipt or acknowledgement stands in for the certificate.
What does the "proposed completion date" on the certificate mean for my agreement?
It is the date the promoter swore to under Section 4(2)(l)(C), and the Act hangs two things on it: the registration lives only that long under Section 5(3), and Section 19(3) entitles the allottee to claim possession as per that declaration. It is not the date that runs your interest clock. Section 18(1) turns on the promoter's failure to give possession "in accordance with the terms of the agreement for sale or, as the case may be, duly completed by the date specified therein", and Section 13(2) requires the agreement to state the possession date. Compare the end date on the certificate with the possession date in the draft agreement, and if they differ, ask why before you sign.
Extensions change the certificate, not the agreement. Section 6 allows extension for force majeure, defined in the Explanation as war, flood, drought, fire, cyclone, earthquake or other natural calamity, and by the proviso for other reasons without the promoter's default, within the aggregate limit of one year. The Supreme Court in Newtech, at paragraph 25, called the allottee's refund on demand under Section 18(1)(a) "an unconditional absolute right" where possession is not given within the time stipulated in the agreement, "regardless of unforeseen events or stay orders" not attributable to the allottee. K-RERA applied that in complaint CMP/959/2024 (Bench 5, 11 July 2025): the Authority had granted the project a nine month COVID extension, and the bench held the extension was only to complete construction and did not extend the period for delay interest, which ran from the day after the agreement's completion date at the SBI highest MCLR plus two per cent.
The portal makes lapse visible. In mid-September 2026 the default projects page carried a banner that the proposed completion date for the listed projects has expired and buyers may take an informed decision accordingly, with 2,991 projects listed as lapsed. Section 8 then lets the Authority hand the remaining works to the competent authority or the allottees' association.
Deadline warning. The Section 18 interest clock starts the day after the possession date in your registered agreement for sale, not the day the certificate expires and not the day an extension runs out. Newtech and the Karnataka orders following it treat that date as fixed unless you agree in writing, for consideration, to move it.
How much can I pay before the agreement for sale is registered?
Ten per cent of the cost of the apartment, plot or building, and not a rupee more, until a written agreement for sale is signed and registered. That is Section 13(1), whatever the promoter calls the money. Section 13(2) prescribes what the agreement must contain: the particulars of development, the specifications, the internal and external development works, the dates and manner of payment, the possession date, and the interest payable by each side on default. Section 2(za) fixes that interest at the same rate both ways.
The booking form is not that agreement. Under Section 54 of the Transfer of Property Act a contract for sale creates no interest in the property, and a sale of property worth one hundred rupees or more passes only by a registered instrument. The sequence is booking receipt, registered agreement for sale, instalments against construction stages, occupancy certificate, then the registered deed under Section 17 of the 2016 Act within three months of the occupancy certificate where no local law fixes a shorter period. The guide on sale agreement versus sale deed explains the difference, and the Ask Me answer on registering before the amenities are finished covers the end of that sequence.
What are the promoter's quarterly duties I can watch?
Four uploads within fifteen days of the end of every quarter: the apartments or plots booked, the garages booked, the status of the project with photographs of each building, each floor and the internal infrastructure, and the approvals received, applied for and still to be applied for. Section 11(1) imposes the duty and Rule 15(1)(D) fixes the window and the photographs. A project page three quarters out of date belongs to a promoter already in breach, and Section 61 makes that punishable by up to five per cent of the estimated project cost.
Three more duties can be checked on the day. Section 11(2) requires every advertisement to carry the Authority's website address and the registration number prominently, so a hoarding without the number is itself a breach. Section 11(3) requires the promoter, at booking, to display the sanctioned plans and specifications at the site and to give the stage-wise schedule of completion including water, sanitation and electricity, and Section 19(1) and (2) give you the matching right. After you sign, Section 11(4)(h) forbids the promoter from mortgaging your unit.
Is the agent who is selling to me registered?
If a broker, channel partner or platform is facilitating the sale, Section 9(1) requires that agent to be registered, Section 9(5) requires the number to be quoted in every sale, and Rule 10(4) makes the registration valid for five years. Section 62 makes an unregistered agent liable to ten thousand rupees for every day of default, cumulatively up to five per cent of the cost of the unit. The agent search lists agents by name, firm and registration number with the approval and expiry dates, and in mid-September 2026 showed 1,602 agents whose registration had expired. An agent who will not quote a number is telling you something about the project.
Buying a plot in a gated layout: what changes?
The registration test is the same, but the approvals behind it differ, and what you are buying is the development works as much as the plot. Section 2(zb) defines internal development works to include roads, footpaths, water supply, sewers, drains, parks, street lighting, sewage treatment and fire safety, all "as per sanctioned plans", and Rule 4(4) requires the promoter to disclose each plot's area as per the layout plan, so the dimensions in your agreement must match the sanctioned layout, not the sales office drawing.
The approvals chain for a layout has three links, and Rule 3(1)(e) requires the promoter to file all three with his application: the conversion order under Section 95 of the Karnataka Land Revenue Act, 1964 where the land was agricultural, the change of land use under Section 14 of the Town and Country Planning Act where the zoning does not already permit residential use, and the layout sanction under Section 17 of that Act. Section 17(2A) requires a provisional layout plan and a registered relinquishment deed passing the roads and parks to the local authority and the civic amenity sites to the planning authority free of cost, and Section 17(2B) requires the development works to be completed and certified before the final layout plan issues. What registration adds is a promoter sworn to a completion date for those works, bound to convey the plot by registered deed under Section 17 and Section 11(4)(f), bound under Section 11(4)(d) to provide essential services until the allottees' association takes over, and exposed to Section 18 if the layout is not completed by the agreement date. It does not add a khata, which the e-khata guide covers.
Buying a resale flat in a registered project: what changes?
You step into the seller's shoes, with his agreement date and his payment position, and the promoter's consent is a contractual matter, not a statutory one. Section 2(d) defines an allottee to include "the person who subsequently acquires the said allotment through sale, transfer or otherwise", so a buyer from an existing allottee holds every right in Chapter IV. The possession date that governs Section 18 stays the date in the original registered agreement, and the seller's dues under Section 19(6) travel with the unit, so get the promoter's statement of account before you pay the seller. Section 15 is often cited here and does not apply: it governs the promoter's transfer of his majority rights in the project, which needs the written consent of two-thirds of the allottees and the Authority's approval. The allottee's transfer of a single unit is governed by the transfer clause in the agreement for sale, which usually requires the promoter's endorsement, and by Section 54 of the Transfer of Property Act for the registered instrument. If the building is complete, add the occupancy certificate question covered in the guide on no occupancy certificate.
What are the red flags on the portal?
Seven lists on the K-RERA portal do the screening for you, and each rests on a provision that tells you what the listing means.
| Portal list | What it means | Provision behind it |
|---|---|---|
| Projects Under Investigation | Notices issued to a promoter selling without registration, with a public warning that dealing with the project is at your own risk | Section 3, Section 59 |
| Default and Lapsed Projects | The proposed completion date has passed without extension or completion | Section 5(3), Section 6, Section 8 |
| Withdrawn or Revoked | Registration revoked after thirty days' notice, which puts the promoter's name and photograph on the defaulters list, or withdrawn by the promoter | Section 7(2), Section 7(4)(a) |
| Applications Rejected | Registration refused for reasons recorded in writing, usually a missing approval or a title defect | Section 5(1)(b) |
| Complaints on Promoter and on Project | Every complaint filed against the promoter and the project, with the orders | Section 31, Section 34(c) |
| Recovery list | Complaints in which the amount ordered has been realised, by recovery as arrears of land revenue | Section 40, Rule 25 |
| Agents Expired | Agents whose five year registration ran out without renewal | Section 9(6), Rule 10(4) |
In mid-September 2026 the promoter-wise report showed 13,275 complaints against 2,015 promoters, and the project status page listed 957 rejected applications and 107 withdrawn or revoked registrations. A long complaints list is not by itself a reason to walk away, because large developers attract more complaints than small ones, but the orders tell you what the complaints were about and whether he paid.
Where these checks actually catch the problem
What I tell clients is that the portal is the one place where the promoter has already spoken under oath, and the brochure is the one place where he has not. The certificate's end date, the approvals under Section 4(2)(c), the five year track record under Section 4(2)(b) and the quarterly photographs are statements he made knowing that Section 60 punishes false information in the application with up to five per cent of the project cost. The cases rarely turn on whether the project was registered. They turn on a gap between the portal and the paper the buyer signed: a possession date in the agreement later than the certificate, a unit that is not on the uploaded plan, a phase marketed under another phase's registration, or a booking amount above ten per cent taken on an application form. Each gap was visible before the money moved.
The four facts below are the ones buyers most often learn after paying.
Fifteen days after each quarter
Rule 15(1)(D) requires the promoter to upload units booked, photographs of every building and floor, and the approvals position within fifteen days of the end of each quarter.
Ten per cent penalty
Section 59(1) makes a promoter who sells without registration liable to a penalty of up to ten per cent of the estimated project cost, with imprisonment up to three years if he continues.
Agreement date rules
Newtech and the Karnataka orders following it run Section 18 interest from the possession date in the registered agreement, and a COVID extension of the registration does not move it.
Each phase registers alone
The Explanation to Section 3 treats every phase as a separate project, so a certificate for one phase says nothing about the tower or the sites being marketed as the next one.
What does it cost and how long does it take?
The portal check is free and takes about ten minutes. An advocate's opinion on the uploads, the draft agreement and the layout approvals takes a few working days and is a small fixed cost against the booking amount, and the firm's property and real estate practice and its RERA homebuyer work both start there rather than at the complaint stage.
If the check turns into a complaint, the statutory figures are these. A complaint to the Authority is in Form N under Rule 29 with a fee of one thousand rupees, and a complaint to the adjudicating officer for compensation under Sections 12, 14, 18 and 19 is in Form O under Rule 30 with the same fee, each by demand draft. An appeal to the Karnataka Real Estate Appellate Tribunal carries a fee of five thousand rupees under its Regulations. Interest under Rule 16 is the State Bank of India's highest marginal cost of lending rate plus two per cent, which on the bank's table effective 15 August 2026 is the three year rate of 8.80 per cent plus two, or 10.80 per cent a year, and it moves whenever the bank revises the rate. A refund ordered under the Act is payable within sixty days of falling due under Rule 17. Hearing timelines vary by bench, so treat any figure beyond the statutory ones as indicative.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is RERA registration mandatory for a plotted layout in Karnataka?
Yes, if the layout is in a planning area and the land exceeds five hundred square metres. Section 2(zn) includes the development of land into plots in the definition of a real estate project, Section 2(zk)(ii) makes the developer a promoter, and Rule 3(3)(d) fixes a registration fee specifically for plotted development.
What does a Karnataka RERA registration number look like?
It begins PRM/KA/RERA/, followed by two numeric location codes, then PR, then a six digit block which is the approval date written as year, month and day, and a serial number. Type it into the project search and open the certificate rather than trusting the number on a brochure.
The certificate's end date has passed but construction is going on. Is the project still registered?
Not unless the Authority has extended it under Section 6, which the extension status list shows. A registration run past its declared completion date without extension is listed as lapsed, and Section 8 lets the Authority hand the remaining works to the competent authority or the allottees' association.
Can I pay twenty per cent as a booking amount if the builder insists?
Not lawfully. Section 13(1) bars the promoter from accepting more than ten per cent of the cost as advance or application fee before a written agreement for sale is signed and registered, and a promoter who insists on more is asking you to fund a breach of the Act.
The project is RERA registered but the layout is not BDA approved. Am I safe?
No. Registration rests on the promoter's declarations under Section 4 and his affidavit under Section 4(2)(l)(E) that he will obtain pending approvals on time. Layout sanction under Section 17 of the Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act is a separate approval, and without a final layout plan no building licence can issue on the sites.
Do I need the agent to be RERA registered if I am dealing with the builder directly?
If no agent is facilitating the sale, Section 9 is not engaged. If any broker, channel partner or platform introduced you or is negotiating for you, that person must be registered and must quote the registration number in the sale under Section 9(5).
Can I file a RERA complaint about a project that was never registered?
Section 31 allows a complaint for any contravention of the Act, and non-registration contravenes Section 3, so the complaint lies on the text and K-RERA does take such complaints, routing them first for registration enforcement. The risk is a maintainability objection if the project was exempt under Section 3(2) or the Rule 4 carve-outs, so gather proof of the land area and unit count before filing.
Does RERA registration mean the title is clear?
No. The promoter files a title declaration on affidavit under Section 4(2)(l)(A) and the title deeds, a title search report and an encumbrance certificate under Rule 15(1)(F), and Section 18(2) makes him liable for loss caused by defective title without any limitation period. The Authority does not verify title, so you or your advocate must read the uploaded documents and pull the encumbrance certificate yourself.
This article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Consult a qualified advocate for advice on your specific situation.
