A RERA-Registered Flat May Still Stand on Land With a Defective Title

Answer for 2026: registering with RERA does not test the title. The Act relies on the promoter's own sworn word that he has legal title to the land (Section 4(2)(l)(A), RERA Act, 2016). A complete application is registered within thirty days, and if the authority does nothing, deemed registration follows (Section 5). Nowhere is the authority told to look into title, demand a title-search report, or stand behind the title. So a fully registered project may stand on land tied up in a joint-development dispute, burdened by an undisclosed charge, or under a pending suit. Verify the land title on your own before paying: the 30-year deed chain, the encumbrance certificate for the correct survey number, the title of the landowner and the JDA in addition to the developer, the approvals, and a litigation search under the names of owner, landowner and developer.

If you keep one point in mind, make it this: registration tells you the project was disclosed and is regulated. It does not tell you the title to the land is clear. These are two separate questions, answered in two separate places.

Why Registration Under RERA Does Not Mean a Cleared Title

This is where many builder and brokerage blogs go wrong. Several popular guides tell buyers that "RERA registration ensures the builder has clear land titles." The Act does not do that.

A promoter who applies to register a project must file, under Section 4(2)(l) of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016, a declaration backed by an affidavit. In sub-clause (A) he states that he holds legal title to the land to be developed, along with valid documents authenticating that title if the land belongs to someone else. In sub-clause (B) he states that the land is free of encumbrances, or lists those that exist. It is a self-declaration. The promoter swears to his own title, and the authority does not audit it.

Section 5 describes what the authority does next. Within thirty days it either grants registration subject to the Act, or refuses if the application does not conform to the Act, rules or regulations. If thirty days pass without action, the project counts as registered. The test is whether the application is complete and in order, not whether the title can be marketed. Nowhere does the statute have RERA run a title search, study the 30-year chain, or pull an encumbrance certificate to test the promoter's word.

This is exactly the limit. A body that registers forty projects a week cannot settle the title of every one. RERA works through transparency and accountability: disclosure is forced, buyers' money goes to escrow, builders face deadlines, and a complaint forum exists. It cannot stand in for the title check a bank's advocate or an independent title search performs. One Real Estate Regulatory Authority said as much in a decided complaint: a registered sale deed does not cure defects in title. When even the strongest ownership document cannot repair a bad title, a project registration certificate has no chance.

What RERA Certifies and What It Leaves Out

• What it gives you: a regulated project, disclosed publicly, with a registration number you can verify · What it does NOT give: independent proof that the promoter's title is good
• What it gives you: the promoter's sworn declaration on title and encumbrances is on record · What it does NOT give: assurance that the land has no defects, charges or disputes
• What it gives you: 70% of what you pay sits in a project escrow account · What it does NOT give: cover against a civil suit pending on the land (lis pendens)
• What it gives you: quarterly progress reports and a complaint forum against the builder · What it does NOT give: a ruling on who owns the land, which remains for civil courts
• What it gives you: downloadable title certificate, encumbrances, approvals, OC/CC · What it does NOT give: a title chain tested over 30 years on the right survey number

Read the right-hand side twice. Each point there is a separate check that you must do, or have done, after confirming the project is registered.

"The Land Is Under a JDA": The Effect on Your Title Risk

In cities, apartment blocks commonly rise on a landowner's plot through a Joint Development Agreement (JDA). Under it the owner continues to hold legal title, and the developer receives the right to develop plus a power of attorney to build and sell the developer's portion of flats. Registration with RERA can be in the developer's name and perfectly valid, while the land under your flat is still the landowner's.

This risk has reached the Supreme Court. Sriganesh Chandrasekaran v. Unishire Homes LLP (2026 INSC 172) involved a JDA project delivered years late. Buyers of flats took both the developer and the landowners to court. The Court absolved the landowners of liability for deficiency in service, reasoning that people with no part in construction cannot be blamed for the developer's failure. It nevertheless kept the order requiring landowners and developer together to sign the sale deeds and transfer title to the buyers, since the title came from the landowners and not from the developer alone.

The lesson is plain. The developer named on the RERA certificate may not own your land. A registered JDA with a power of attorney in the developer's favour does not by itself convey title to you. If landowner and developer fall out, or the landowner's own title is flawed, your flat is stuck in the middle. So check the landowner's chain of title, and read the JDA to see who holds what, what the landowner's share is, and whether the landowner has agreed to the sale of your particular unit. Do not stop at the developer's RERA filing.

"A Case Is Pending on the Land, but the Project Is RERA-Registered": Is That Safe?

No. RERA does not clear title litigation, and a pending suit does not prevent registration of a project.

Section 52 of the Transfer of Property Act, 1882 embodies lis pendens. While a non-collusive suit is pending in which a right to immoveable property is directly and specifically in question, no party can transfer or otherwise deal with that property so as to prejudice the other side's rights under the final decree. In plain words, buying land under a live suit means accepting the result. When the seller's side loses, so do you, whether or not you knew of the case and whether or not a stay order existed.

Buyers underestimate this for two reasons. One: RERA's complaint register concerns the builder's behaviour, meaning delay, defects and disclosure. It does not decide ownership of the land, which stays with civil courts, so a project may have a registration number and a title suit pending together. Two: in Maharashtra and Gujarat the pending suit's notice should be registered. Yet in Celir LLP v. Sumati Prasad Bafna (2024 INSC 978) the Supreme Court confirmed that, where no registered notice of pendency exists under the amended Section 52 of TPA, the provision is not rendered ipso-facto inapplicable. A missing notice therefore gives a buyer no automatic safety, because the court may still apply lis pendens given the facts. Your real defence is a correct litigation search before payment (method below).

"The Project Is Not Registered With RERA at All": Is That Always a Red Flag?

Not necessarily, because the law carves out small projects. Under Section 3(2)(a), registration is unnecessary when the land is up to five hundred square meters, or when no more than eight apartments are planned across all phases. A second exemption, Section 3(2)(b), covers projects that had a completion certificate before the Act began to apply.

A genuinely small building or a completed project may thus lawfully go unregistered, with two cautions. Some authorities and courts read the "or" in Section 3(2)(a) strictly, so a borderline project should be checked, not assumed. And "all phases" is counted together: a builder may not split one big project into sub-500-square-metre "phases" to escape registration. A project that plainly needs registration but lacks it is a red flag. For a small or completed project, ask the builder which exemption applies and verify the title as for any purchase, since none of RERA's disclosure has touched such a project.

What You Can Download From the RERA Portal

Registration does leave documents behind, and most buyers never look at them. The state RERA portal lets you search by project name, promoter or registration number and download the promoter's filings and quarterly updates. MahaRERA's own buyer guidance tells people to collect the legal title certificate, draft allotment letter and model agreement, and details of litigations and encumbrances. It also advises checking the OC uploaded on its website and verifying the architect's completion certificate.

Use these. Pull the promoter's legal title certificate and see who certified it and over which land. Read the litigations and encumbrances that were disclosed. Compare the approvals obtained with those still pending. Keep in mind what you are reading: the promoter's own uploads and his own advocate's title certificate, which is the kind of document a lender would not trust without its own check. It is a solid starting point and a disclosure you are entitled to, but it is not independent verification.

To confirm that a project is registered and to read its number correctly, see our state-by-state guide on how to check RERA registration in every state.

The Title Check That RERA Cannot Replace

This is the work that really protects you, and none of it takes place inside RERA. Whether an advocate or an independent title search does it, the scope is the same:

• Thirty years of title. Start from the mother deed and walk forward through every link deed to today's owner. Any gap, absent link or deed that does not tie to the next one is a defect RERA never searches for. Our note on reading a sale deed before you buy helps.
• The EC for the right survey number. Under the Registration Act, 1908, an EC is a search of registered instruments: mortgages, sales, gifts, attachments. Get it for the land's survey number rather than for the flat. Remember it cannot see unregistered matters. An ordinary court case is not a registrable instrument and usually stays off it, hence the separate litigation step below.
• Landowner and JDA. Where the project stands on another person's land, trace the landowner's own chain and study the JDA, as set out above.
• Land use. For land that was once agricultural, make sure it was converted for residential use before construction began.
• Sanctioned plan and commencement certificate. Confirm that what is going up matches the sanctioned plan and that a commencement certificate was issued.
• Name-based court search. Courts index cases by the people involved, not by plot. Search the owner, the landowner when a JDA exists, the developer and previous owners in the chain. That is how disputes invisible in land registers show up. See our guide on checking pending court cases on a property.
• OC and completion certificate at handover. A possession letter alone is not enough to take the keys or pay the final instalment; ask for the OC. The two documents differ in substance, as we explain in Occupancy Certificate vs Completion Certificate.

Our flat and apartment due-diligence checklist covers apartment buying end to end, including the trap where the builder has already pledged your flat to a bank.

Where LegiScore Fits In

The LegiScore report is an independent title search and legal opinion for one property. A single rated document combines the 30-year chain, the encumbrance certificate, revenue and municipal records, a RERA registration check, and a litigation search by name across courts. A RERA certificate was never meant to be a second opinion; this is. It mirrors the checks a careful bank advocate would run, and a buyer can order it directly. Your own advocate's advice is not replaced. You and your advocate simply get a verified base before any money moves.