What RERA does, and what it does not

A RERA registration makes a project declare itself — its promoter, its land, its sanctioned plan, its completion date — and keep that declaration public and updated. It does not certify the title, settle who owns the land, cover every project being sold, or sanction the layout. Those four checks stay yours, registration number or not.

First, the job it does

The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 is a disclosure regime. A registered project has to state, on the regulator's own portal, who is promoting it, which land it stands on, what plan has been sanctioned for it and when it is promised to be finished — and then keep that statement current, quarter after quarter, in public. A buyer who reads the registration is reading what the promoter has committed to in writing, and a promoter who falls behind that commitment is answerable to the regulator.

Who must register

In Madhya Pradesh a project must register if either its land area is more than 500 square metres or it has more than eight apartments or units. Either threshold alone is enough; a project does not need to cross both. Projects that were already under way and had not received a completion certificate when the Act came into force were caught by it too.

"RERA is for flats" — no

This is the commonest misreading, and it matters in Indore, where most of what is sold is plots. The Act is not written around towers.

The one people forget: agents register too

Real estate agents register individually, and an agent without a registration cannot legally facilitate a sale in a registered project. The list of registered agents is public, on the same portal as the projects. The penalty for an agent who does not register is ten thousand rupees for every day the default continues, which can run cumulatively to five per cent of the cost of the plot or apartment whose sale was facilitated.

And now the scope: what it does not do

A registration is a record, not a clearance. Four things the Act deliberately leaves to somebody else, each worth knowing before you treat a number on the portal as the end of the checking.

1. It does not certify that the title is clean

RERA is a disclosure and accountability regime. The promoter declares the land and any encumbrances on it; the regulator publishes the declaration. Nobody at the regulator has searched the title, and the registration is not a substitute for a search.

2. It does not settle who owns the land

Courts have held that RERA authorities cannot decide a title dispute, and cannot grant the declarations and injunctions a civil court grants. A question about ownership belongs in a different building.

So the old checks stay exactly where they were: the chain of registered deeds, the encumbrance certificate and the khasra record are still yours to read, whether or not a registration number sits on the hoarding.

3. It does not cover everything being sold

A project under the threshold — small land area, few units — need not register at all. So "no RERA number" is not automatically a warning sign, and it is not a clean bill of health either. It means only that the answer is somewhere else, and you have to go and get it.

4. It does not sanction the plan

Layout and building approvals come from the planning authority, and the master plan decides what the land may be used for. RERA requires those approvals to be filed with the registration; it does not issue them. A registration can be complete and current while the sanctioned layout shows fewer plots than the brochure.

Put it back in proportion

RERA is one of the checks, not the only one — and that is exactly why the record matters. Registration status, the sanctioned layout, the master-plan zone, the chain of registry, the diversion order and the khasra are six answers that live in six places, and no one of them settles the question on its own. On this platform they sit on one page per colony: registration beside layout beside zone beside paperwork, so that a green tick in one column cannot be mistaken for the whole row.

Questions people ask

Does a RERA number mean the layout plan is sanctioned?

No. Layout and building approvals come from the planning authority. RERA requires them to be filed with the registration; it does not grant them. Read the sanctioned layout itself.

Is a project without a RERA number unsafe?

Not automatically. A project under 500 square metres with eight or fewer units need not register. The absence of a number is neither a warning nor a clearance — check the papers directly.

Does RERA apply to plots in Madhya Pradesh?

Yes. A plotted colony over the threshold must register, exactly as an apartment project must.

Does a RERA registration mean the title is clear?

No. The promoter declares the land and its encumbrances; the regulator publishes the declaration. Nobody has searched the title on your behalf.

Do real estate agents need a RERA registration?

Yes. An unregistered agent cannot legally facilitate a sale in a registered project, and the penalty runs daily. Ask for the number and look it up on the portal.

Where do I check a RERA registration in Madhya Pradesh?

On the MP RERA portal, which lists projects, agents, complaints and quarterly updates.

Where the facts come from. The facts and figures in this post come from verified government sources and verified RERA-registered brokers.

Indori Zameen is a private platform. It is not a government body and is not affiliated with one — always confirm a record with the concerned authority before you commit money.