Check registration at empanelment, not after a booking. Rules are state-specific, but the practical position is that a developer relying on unregistered agents carries the awkwardness when it surfaces. Make the registration number a standard field in your channel partner record and re-check it at renewal. General background, not legal advice.
Section 9(1) of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 bars a real estate agent from facilitating a sale in a registered project without registration, and section 62 sets the penalty at ₹10,000 for every day the default continues, capped cumulatively at five per cent of the cost of the unit whose sale was facilitated. The Act was enacted on 25 March 2016 and came fully into force on 1 May 2017; the form, fee and renewal period are prescribed by each state’s rules. Source: Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 (Act No. 16 of 2016), India Code.
This article is general background for developers and is not legal advice. RERA is implemented state by state, with different rules and authorities, and the position changes. Confirm anything specific with your legal adviser and your state authority before acting.
Most developers empanel brokers on a commercial basis and treat registration as paperwork. It is worth being more deliberate, because the exposure sits with you as much as with the agent.
What the requirement broadly is
Under the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016, real estate agents dealing in registered projects are required to be registered with the relevant authority. Registration process, validity, renewal, fees and penalties are set by each state’s rules and its authority.
Because the details are state-level, an agent registered in one state does not automatically satisfy the requirement for a transaction in another. Confirm the position with your legal adviser where partners operate across state lines.
Why developers should care
Your project is the one being sold. An agent operating outside the requirement while marketing your project is a problem attached to your project.
Buyers check. Increasingly, cautious buyers of ready inventory verify the agent as well as the developer. An agent who cannot produce a registration number introduces doubt about you.
It is a proxy for seriousness. An agent who has completed registration is running a business rather than transacting casually. In practice they also tend to handle documentation better.
What to do at empanelment
Ask for the registration number and a copy of the certificate. Not a verbal assurance.
Verify it independently. State authorities publish agent registers. Look the number up rather than accepting the document at face value.
Record the validity period. Registrations have terms and require renewal. A partner registered when you empanelled them may not be registered eighteen months later.
Diarise re-verification. A simple annual check across your partner list.
Put it in the agreement. A clause requiring the agent to be and remain registered, to notify you of any change, and confirming their responsibility for their own compliance. Drafting is for your legal adviser.
The awkward practical situation
Sometimes the broker bringing you the most buyers is the one whose registration is not in order.
This is a decision for you and your legal adviser rather than something to resolve informally. What is worth avoiding is the common middle path — knowing the position, saying nothing, and hoping. That is the version with the worst outcome if it surfaces.
Often the workable answer is to give the partner a defined period to complete registration and support them through it. Many are simply disorganised rather than unwilling.
Fit it into normal channel management
Registration verification belongs in the same routine as your other partner records — agreement signed, bank details, PAN and GST details, registration number and validity, and the date each was last checked.
One sheet, reviewed quarterly, alongside the activity tracking described in channel partner management.
The 99-Day Sprint
Crudoimage installs and operates the full selling system on your project for 99 days — enquiries, follow-up, qualification, brokers and site visits, run daily. You set the price and close. If no flat sells in 99 days, your monthly fee is ₹0.
See how the 99-Day Sprint works →
Frequently asked questions
Do brokers selling my project need RERA registration?
Agents dealing in registered projects are required to be registered under the Act, with the process and details set by each state’s rules. Confirm your state’s current position.
How do I verify an agent’s registration?
Ask for the number and certificate, then look the number up on the state authority’s published register rather than relying on the document alone.
How often should registration be re-checked?
At least annually — registrations have validity periods and a partner registered at empanelment may have lapsed since.