Reading a RERA page before you book: a ten-minute check

Reading a RERA page is the cheapest check in a home purchase. The most useful document in any property purchase in Gujarat is free, public and takes ten minutes to read. It is the project’s page on the GujRERA portal, and in our experience fewer than one buyer in five has looked at it before the first cheque.

You do not need a lawyer to read it. You need to know where to look. Open gujrera.gujarat.gov.in, search the project by name or registration number, and work through it in this order.

The registration itself

Start with the registration number and its validity. Every project must be registered before it is advertised, and the number should appear on every brochure, hoarding and advertisement. For NB Legacy Tower, for instance, it is printed on the site banner as PR/GJ/AHMEDABAD/DASKROI/Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation/RAA16634/240326/311232.

Check two things: that the number on the brochure matches the portal exactly, and that the proposed completion date on the portal matches what the sales team told you. If they differ, ask which one the agreement will carry. It will be the portal’s.

Approvals and land title

The page lists the sanctioned plan, the building-use permission and the land documents the developer filed. You are not expected to audit them. You are looking for gaps: a missing plan approval, a title document in a name that does not match the promoter, or an encumbrance noted against the land.

Quarterly progress

Registered promoters must update construction progress on the portal every quarter. This is the section that tells you most about a developer’s habits. Look for:

• Regular updates. Gaps of several quarters are a question worth asking.
• Progress against the timeline. A project claiming 20 percent completion two years from its deadline has a steep hill to climb.
• Photographs, where uploaded, that look like the site you visited.

How your money is protected

RERA requires a promoter to deposit 70 percent of the amounts collected from buyers into a separate account for that project, withdrawn only in proportion to completed work and certified by an engineer, an architect and a chartered accountant. You will not see the account itself, but the portal shows whether the promoter is filing the certificates.

Two further protections are worth knowing by heart:

• A promoter may not take more than 10 percent of the cost as an advance before a registered agreement for sale.
• Structural defects reported within five years of possession must be fixed by the promoter at no cost to you.

Complaints and orders

Finally, search the promoter’s name in the complaints and orders section. A large developer with a long history will usually have some; what matters is how they were resolved and whether the same issue repeats.

Before you book with us. Ask the NB sales desk for the registration number of the tower and wing you are considering. We will open the portal page with you at NB House and go through it together, section by section.

What a RERA page cannot tell you

The portal records what a promoter has filed and promised. It cannot show you how the site is run, how carefully the concrete is cured or how the developer treats residents after possession. For that, visit a project the same developer finished a few years ago, talk to the people who live there, and ask to see a construction site on a working morning. Our note on the slab cycle lists what to look for. Between the RERA page and one honest site visit, you will know most of what matters.

The ten-minute RERA checklist

1. Registration number matches every document.
2. Completion date on the portal is the one you are planning around.
3. Plans and land documents are present, in the promoter’s name.
4. Quarterly updates are regular and credible.
5. No pattern of unresolved complaints.

General information, not legal advice. Rules and portal layouts change; confirm specifics with your own advocate.