What is RERA (Real Estate Regulatory Authority)?
Also called: RERA Act 2016, Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, rera kya hai, MahaRERA, UP RERA, HRERA
RERA is the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016, and the state authority it created to register projects and agents, control how builders use buyers' money and hear buyer complaints.
Parliament passed the Act in March 2016. The sections that set up the authorities came into force on 1 May 2016 and the rest on 1 May 2017. Each state writes its own rules and runs its own authority: MahaRERA in Maharashtra, UP RERA in Lucknow and Greater Noida, HRERA with benches at Gurugram and Panchkula, K-RERA in Bengaluru. The Act sets the floor. The state rules fill in the forms, the fees and the interest rate.
The core obligations are few but sharp. Under Section 3, no promoter can advertise, book or sell in a project without registration, unless the land is 500 sq m or less or there are eight apartments or fewer across all phases. Section 4(2)(l)(D) sends 70% of buyer collections into a separate bank account. Section 13 caps what a builder can take before a registered agreement for sale at 10% of the cost. Section 18 makes the builder pay interest for every month of delay, or refund with interest if you walk away, and Section 14(3) gives you five years from possession to report defects.
West Bengal tried to run its own law, WBHIRA, in place of RERA. The Supreme Court struck it down in May 2021. Projects that already had a completion certificate when the Act came in were never required to register, which is why plenty of older buildings in Mumbai or Delhi have no RERA number at all.
The Act protects you mainly in a purchase from the builder. For the deal itself between a resale seller and buyer, the Transfer of Property Act, the Registration Act and ordinary contract law still do the work.
A buyer who booked a 2 BHK in Greater Noida West in 2019, with possession promised for December 2022, can complain to UP RERA and claim interest on every rupee paid, month by month, from January 2023 until the builder offers possession with an occupancy certificate.
Reading a RERA number as a seal of safety. Registration means the builder filed papers and made disclosures; it says nothing about its finances or whether the land title is clean.
Questions people ask about RERA (Real Estate Regulatory Authority)
Does RERA help a resale buyer?
Partly. Section 2(d) counts anyone who later acquires the allotment through sale or transfer as an allottee, so you can pursue the builder for delay or defects. The deal between you and the seller is outside RERA.
Is RERA the same in every state?
The Act is; the rules aren't. Complaint forms, fees, the delay interest rate and agent registration terms are set state by state, so read the rules of the state where the project sits.