01
RERA number verified on up-rera.in — not a screenshot
A RERA number quoted in a brochure, forwarded on WhatsApp, or shown as a screenshot proves nothing on its own — screenshots can be edited, and a real number can still belong to a different phase, block, or an entirely different project than the one you're being sold. The only thing that proves a registration is real, current, and matches the unit in front of you is looking it up yourself, on the portal, right now.
How to verify it yourself
- Go to up-rera.in directly (for Uttar Pradesh projects) or the RERA portal for whichever state the project sits in — never a link forwarded by the seller.
- Search the project by name or registration number in the portal's own search, not a third-party listing site.
- Confirm the promoter name, project address, sanctioned unit count and registration validity match what you were told.
- If the registration shows lapsed, extended, or filed under a different promoter than the one you're dealing with, stop and ask why before paying anything.
What helps: every RERA number we cite across this site links straight into up-rera.in's own project search, not a screenshot or a PDF we hosted ourselves — see our step-by-step RERA verification walkthrough for exactly what the portal entry should show.
Run it on us: click through any RERA number on our project pages. If it doesn't take you straight to the live portal entry, that's a bug in our own work — tell us and it goes on the Correction Ledger.
02
Promoter legal entity = RERA entity
The name on the hoarding and the name on the RERA filing are not always the same company. A project can be marketed under a builder's well-known brand while the actual promoter entity registered with RERA is a separate, thinly capitalised subsidiary, or an unrelated company that happens to share initials or a surname.
How to verify it yourself
- Note the exact promoter name shown on the RERA portal entry from Check 1 — not the brand name on the marketing material.
- Search that exact legal entity name, not the brand, for its own track record, other registered projects, and any RERA complaint history.
- Ask directly: “Is [brand name] the same legal entity as [RERA-filed promoter name], or a separate company?” — a genuine sales desk answers this without hesitation.
What helps: our own project reviews name the RERA-filed promoter entity for every project we cover and flag it explicitly when it doesn't match the marketed brand.
Run it on us: see our ACE Terra review, where the RERA-filed promoter (Ajay Realcon India LLP) turned out to be a distinct legal entity from the original ACE Parkway's promoter, despite the shared “ACE” branding — we said so on the page rather than assuming continuity.
03
How many domains market this project, and who runs them
The same project is often marketed by the developer's own site, one or more authorised channel partners, and independent broker sites with no actual relationship to the developer — sometimes carrying different prices, different availability claims, and different (or no) RERA disclosure. One domain telling you what you want to hear proves nothing about the other nine.
How to verify it yourself
- Search the project name in quotes and note every distinct domain that appears, not just the first result.
- On each one, look for an “about” page or disclosure line stating whether it's the developer or a channel partner — a genuine RERA-compliant site will say so plainly.
- Compare the price, availability and possession claims across at least three of them before treating any single one as authoritative.
What helps: none, honestly — this check is manual, and we'd rather say so than pretend a tool does it for you.
Run it on us: our County and Orion reviews on this site did exactly this — nine and ten promotional domains checked respectively, with each one's operator and disclosure status named plainly, including the domains that turned out to carry no findable RERA number at all.
04
Possession date SOURCE — RERA filing vs brochure
Brochures and sales conversations quote possession dates as aspirational marketing timelines. The RERA filing carries a separate, legally binding completion date, usually with a defined grace period — and that is the one that actually matters if delivery slips.
How to verify it yourself
- Ask specifically for the RERA-filed possession/completion date, not the “expected possession” line from the brochure.
- Cross-check it yourself on the portal entry from Check 1.
- Note any gap between the two dates — a gap isn't automatically dishonest, but it's information you should have before you commit.
What helps: our project reviews cite both dates side by side — the marketing timeline and the RERA-filed one — so any gap is visible rather than smoothed over.
Run it on us: our Eldeco Echoes of Eden coverage states the RERA-filed possession window (January 2031, with the standard grace period) plainly, rather than only repeating a shorter brochure framing.
05
Price basis — BSP-only vs all-in; decode any quote
A quoted rate almost always means Basic Sale Price per square foot — before GST, stamp duty, registration, PLC, IFMS, club membership and parking. Two sellers can quote the “same” number while meaning cost sheets that land 15–20% apart once every line item is added.
How to verify it yourself
- Ask explicitly whether the number quoted is BSP-only or all-in; if BSP, request the full cost-sheet breakdown line by line.
- Add GST, state-specific stamp duty, registration, and any PLC/IFMS/club/parking charges yourself before comparing “price” across projects.
- Never compare a BSP-only figure from one seller against an all-in figure from another.
What helps: the Quote Decoder and our total-cost calculator both do exactly this — enter a per-sq.ft quote and see it broken into BSP, taxes and charges, so you can see what a dealer's number is actually including.
Run it on us: run any quote you've been given — from us or anyone else — through the Quote Decoder before you treat two numbers as comparable.
06
Availability source — developer list vs dealer claim
“Only a few units left” and “sold out” are two of the most abused phrases in this business, and a dealer's claim about what's available is not the same as the developer's own current inventory. Stale broker listings, and AI-generated summaries built on them, both tend to repeat old availability data long after it's changed.
How to verify it yourself
- Ask which specific tower, floor and unit number is being offered — not just a configuration like “a 3 BHK.”
- Ask the source of the availability claim directly: the developer's own current sales record, or a dealer's inherited list.
- Where you can, cross-check against a dated, sourced availability page rather than a verbal claim.
What helps: our Yamuna Expressway Live Index carries a dated “last verified” line for exactly this reason — status isn't evergreen, it's dated.
Run it on us: our own Correction Ledger records a case where even we got a status line wrong for 35 minutes before catching it. Dated and sourced is meant to protect against exactly that, not to claim we're infallible.
07
Escrow & payment routing — never to an individual
RERA requires 70% of buyer collections to sit in a designated project escrow account, released only against certified construction milestones — specifically so a developer can't divert one project's money into another, and so no individual can simply pocket it. A payment routed to a personal account, a dealer's account, or a company account that doesn't match the RERA filing is the single biggest red flag on this list.
How to verify it yourself
- Ask for the exact payee name and account details before making any payment, and confirm they match the RERA-registered promoter entity from Check 2 — never a person's name.
- Confirm the account is the RERA-mandated escrow/collection account, not a general operating account.
- Pay only against a receipt issued in the promoter entity's name, and keep it.
What helps: our RERA-protection explainer walks through how the escrow mechanism is meant to work and what a compliant receipt should show.
Run it on us: ask our desk for the exact payee details in writing before you pay anything. If the name doesn't match the RERA filing, don't send the money — and tell us, so we can flag it.
08
Agreement rate-lock mechanics
A quoted rate at booking is not automatically the rate you pay at possession, unless the Agreement for Sale says so. Some structures lock the per-sq.ft rate for the full agreement value at signing; others leave room for escalation tied to construction stage or area reconciliation.
How to verify it yourself
- Read the Agreement for Sale's price clause itself, not the booking form — ask whether the quoted rate is locked for the full consideration or subject to any escalation.
- Ask what happens to the price if the final measured carpet area differs from the sanctioned plan — a common source of post-agreement price changes.
- Get the answer in writing in the agreement itself, not a verbal assurance.
What helps: our payment-plan explainer documents a project's staged payment structure and what it's priced against — a starting point, not a substitute for reading the agreement.
Run it on us: ask our desk to walk you through the rate-lock clause on any agreement before you sign. The payment-plan page we publish is where the conversation starts, not where it ends.
09
Exit & refund terms in writing
Circumstances change — a loan falls through, a plot-scheme result changes your budget, a job relocates you. What you get back, and when, if you exit before possession is entirely a function of the agreement's cancellation clause, not what a sales conversation implied.
How to verify it yourself
- Ask for the exact refund/cancellation clause in writing before booking, including any deduction percentage and the stated refund timeline.
- Compare it against RERA's own default rules for the state, which apply if the agreement is silent or non-compliant.
- Keep a copy of whatever is agreed before you pay the first rupee, not after.
What helps: our refund-policy explainer and our RPS-10 lottery next-steps page both document real refund mechanics and timelines in writing, as worked examples of what “in writing” should look like.
Run it on us: our lottery next-steps page exists because a stated refund window is the kind of promise you should be able to hold anyone to, not something taken on faith.
Do these nine checks apply only to pre-launch projects?
No — they apply to any purchase, ready-to-move or resale included. The escrow-routing and rate-lock checks (7 and 8) matter most while a project is still under construction, but the other seven apply just as much to a completed, ready-to-move unit.
What if a seller won't answer one of these checks directly?
Treat a non-answer as the answer. A genuine sales desk — ours included — should be able to produce the RERA portal entry, confirm the promoter match, and put payment and refund terms in writing without friction. Hesitation, redirection, or “just trust us” in place of a document is the signal itself.
Is this list legal advice?
No. It's a verification framework for questions you can check yourself before you sign anything, not a substitute for your own lawyer reading the actual Agreement for Sale. Bring the agreement to a lawyer regardless of how well it clears these nine checks.
You say “run this on us too” — what happens if I find something wrong?
Tell us exactly what and where. If it holds up, it gets its own dated entry on our Correction Ledger — what we published, how long it stood, what caught it, and the fix — the same treatment as every other mistake we've logged there.
Can I print this checklist?
Yes — the printable card further down this page is built to print as one clean page you can fold into a file or hand to a family member, without the site navigation or decoration around it.
What's the “checks passed: n/9” badge?
A short, linked line a page can carry to show how many of these nine checks its own published facts currently satisfy — always linked back here so the number is auditable, not just asserted. It's defined on this page as a reusable pattern; as of publication it isn't yet added to any other page on this site.
