Filing a RERA Complaint in Delhi, UP and Haryana

Which RERA authority should you file your complaint with?

File with the RERA authority of the state in which the project stands. A buyer living in Dwarka who bought in Gurugram files in Haryana; a buyer living in Gurugram who bought in Greater Noida West files in Uttar Pradesh. The builder's registered office and the place where you signed the agreement do not matter for this purpose.

In Delhi there is one authority, Delhi RERA, for projects within the National Capital Territory. Uttar Pradesh has a single authority with its headquarters in Lucknow and an NCR office in Greater Noida that handles a large part of the Noida, Greater Noida, Yamuna Expressway and Ghaziabad work. Haryana has two: the Haryana Real Estate Regulatory Authority, Gurugram, for projects in Gurugram district, and the authority at Panchkula for the rest of the state, including Faridabad and Sonipat. Filing before the wrong one wastes months, so check the project's registration certificate, which names the authority that registered it.

Look up the project on the state portal before you draft anything. The registration page gives the registration number, the promoter's exact legal name and address, the declared completion date, any extensions granted and the quarterly progress reports. Every one of those details goes into the complaint, and the declared completion date is often a useful admission by the builder.

RERA in Delhi, UP and Haryana at a glance

Procedures change by regulation and circular, so check the portal before filing. This is the general position as of October 2026.

The appeal against any of these orders lies within 60 days under section 44, and a builder must deposit the amount ordered before its appeal is heard. That stage is covered in our post on appeals to the RERA Appellate Tribunal and the deposit rule.

Authority or adjudicating officer: where does your claim go?

Refund, interest for delay and directions to the builder go to the authority. Compensation goes to the adjudicating officer. This division comes from the Supreme Court's decision in Newtech Promoters and Developers v State of UP (2021), which held that the authority can order refund with interest and delay interest, while compensation and interest on compensation under sections 12, 14, 18 and 19 are for the adjudicating officer under section 71.

In Haryana this produces two separate complaints: a Form CRA complaint before the authority for refund or delay possession charges, and a separate complaint before the adjudicating officer if you also want compensation for rent, mental agony or other loss. In UP the online form lets you choose where the complaint is to be heard, including a conciliation forum, which is worth considering for a modest claim against a builder that is still functioning. Delhi follows the same legal division.

Directions are often as useful as money. You can ask the authority to direct the builder to obtain the occupancy certificate, to execute the conveyance deed, to stop charging an amount not provided for in the agreement, or to hand over common areas to the association. Section 36 lets the authority pass interim orders restraining a promoter from any act while the complaint is pending, for example from cancelling your allotment or selling your unit to someone else.

Who can file a RERA complaint, and against whom?

Any aggrieved person can file under section 31, and the Explanation to that section includes an association of allottees and a registered voluntary consumer association. In practice most complaints are filed by individual allottees, often in groups of complaints against the same project that are heard together. Where the defect concerns the whole society, such as the lifts, fire safety or the handover of common areas, a complaint by the registered association carries more weight than fifty individual ones.

You file against the promoter, which the Act defines broadly. It covers the builder that developed and sold the flats, and it can cover the landowner who shares in the sale proceeds under a development agreement, and a development authority that itself sold flats. Name every entity that signed your agreement or received your money, using the exact names from the registration page. A subsequent buyer who purchased the flat from the original allottee steps into the original allottee's shoes and can file too, subject to what the builder's endorsement records.

RERA applies to projects that needed registration. Projects on land of up to 500 square metres, or with up to eight apartments, are exempt from registration under section 3(2)(a), and projects that had their completion certificate before the Act came into force are outside it. A complaint against a project that should have been registered but was not is still maintainable, and the authority can also penalise the builder for not registering. If your project is genuinely outside RERA, the consumer commission or the civil court is the forum.

Documents to attach to a RERA complaint

Attach legible PDFs, numbered in the order you refer to them. A thin complaint with complete annexures does better than a long complaint with gaps.

How do you draft a RERA complaint that gets decided quickly?

Keep it short and make the dates do the work. A good complaint fits the facts on two or three pages: who you are, which unit, when you booked, what the agreement promised, what you paid and when, what the builder has done since, and what you want. The authority hears dozens of similar complaints a day, and the one with a clear list of dates and a payment table is the one it can decide on the first or second hearing.

When Advocate B.K. Singh's office drafts a RERA complaint, the payment table is prepared before anything else: each payment with its date, mode, receipt number and whether it went from the buyer or the bank. In contested cases the builder's reply very often disputes the amount or the dates of payment, and a table that already matches the builder's own receipts takes that argument away. The same table is what the authority will later use to compute interest.

The prayer must be precise. Say whether you want a refund of the full amount with interest at the prescribed rate from the date of each payment, or delay interest from a stated date until a valid offer of possession. Add the directions you want, such as possession after the OC, execution of the conveyance deed or withdrawal of a disputed demand. Avoid asking for everything in the alternative; the authority will pick one, and it may not be the one you would have chosen.

Filing a RERA complaint online, step by step

The portals differ in layout but follow the same sequence.

1. Register on the portal

   Create a complainant login on the state RERA portal using an email address and mobile number you check daily. Notices and hearing dates are sent to these, and a missed hearing can lead to dismissal for non-prosecution.

2. Select the project and the forum

   Pick the project by its registration number so the respondent details fill in correctly. Choose the authority for refund or interest, or the adjudicating officer for compensation; in UP you can also choose the conciliation forum.

3. Fill in the complaint and upload annexures

   Enter the facts, the relief sought and the payment details. Upload the complaint, the annexures and the vakalatnama or authorisation as PDFs, in the size limits the portal allows.

4. Pay the fee

   Pay online or by demand draft as the portal directs. Keep the receipt and the complaint number generated, because you will need them for every later step.

5. Serve the builder and file hard copies

   Send a copy of the complaint to each respondent if the regulations require it, and keep proof of dispatch. In UP, deliver a self-attested hard copy to the Lucknow or NCR office; in Haryana, deliver the printed set with copies for each respondent.

6. Track the listing

   Watch the portal for the complaint number, the first date and the bench. Download the cause list the day before each hearing.

What happens after you file? The hearing process

After scrutiny, the authority issues notice to the builder, which files a written reply, usually within three or four weeks. You may file a rejoinder answering new facts the builder raises. The authority then hears arguments, sometimes on the same day as the first appearance if the reply raises nothing new, and passes a reasoned order. Most hearings are short: the member will want to know the date of the agreement, the possession date, the payments and whether an OC exists.

Builders commonly argue that the complaint is premature because a grace period has not run, that the delay was caused by force majeure or government orders, that the buyer defaulted on instalments, or that the buyer is an investor and not a genuine homebuyer. The last argument carries far less weight under RERA than under consumer law, because RERA protects every allottee. Answer each point with a document from your file rather than with general statements.

The Act expects complaints to be decided quickly, but cause lists in the NCR offices are heavy and adjournments happen. An uncontested refund case can end in a few months; a contested one with several respondents may take a year or more. The authority can also order a site inspection or call for the builder's accounts under its powers to investigate. Our post on one-sided builder buyer agreement clauses covers the clauses builders most often rely on at this stage.

Do you need a lawyer for a RERA complaint?

No, the law does not require one, and many buyers file and argue their own RERA complaints. The rules allow a complainant to appear in person or through an authorised representative, which includes an advocate. Where the facts are simple, the agreement is clear and the builder is not seriously contesting, a well-organised buyer can manage.

A lawyer earns his place when the builder raises real defences: a disputed possession clause, a claim that the buyer defaulted, an argument that the project is exempt, cross-claims for holding charges, or several group companies each blaming the others. A badly framed prayer or a missing respondent can also make the eventual order harder to recover. If the case is likely to go to the Appellate Tribunal, it helps to have the record built properly from the first hearing.

Is there a time limit for filing a RERA complaint?

RERA does not lay down a specific limitation period for complaints, and authorities have generally entertained complaints while the builder's failure to give possession continues, treating it as a continuing wrong. That does not mean time is irrelevant. A complaint filed years after possession was taken, or years after the builder cancelled the allotment and the buyer accepted part of the money back, faces questions about delay and waiver.

There is also a practical deadline that matters more than any statute: the builder's financial health. Buyers who file early are ahead in the queue for recovery if the builder runs short of money, and they have an order in hand before an insolvency petition stops execution. If you are weighing whether a long delay will hurt your claim, file sooner rather than later.

Can the case be settled during a RERA complaint?

Yes, and a fair number are. Builders that are still selling in other projects often prefer to settle once a complaint is listed, offering a revised possession date with a credit for delay, a refund in instalments, or an alternative unit in a completed tower. UP RERA's conciliation forum exists for exactly this, and the authorities in Delhi and Haryana record settlements placed before them at a hearing.

If you settle, have the terms recorded in the authority's order rather than in a private letter. A settlement recorded by the authority can be enforced like any other order if the builder defaults on an instalment; a side letter has to be sued on separately. Make the order say what happens on default, for example that the full amount claimed in the complaint with interest becomes payable at once.

Be careful with alternative unit offers. A flat in another tower or another project is only a fair exchange if it has an OC or is genuinely close to one, if the area and price adjustment are written down, and if your delay claim for the original unit is either paid or expressly carried over. Builders sometimes offer a swap into a project that is itself delayed, which simply restarts the problem.

What should you check in the final RERA order?

Read the operative part of the order the day you get it, because errors are easiest to correct immediately. Check that the amount paid matches your payment table, that interest is directed at the prescribed rate from the right dates, that it is stated to run until actual payment, and that the order fixes a time for compliance. In Haryana, for example, orders usually give the builder 90 days to pay.

Check also that the order names every respondent you sued and says which of them is liable, and that it deals with the home loan if you had one, by directing that the bank's dues be cleared first. If there is an arithmetical or clerical error, apply to the same authority for rectification; section 39 allows it to amend an order within two years to rectify a mistake apparent from the record, though not to change the substance.

Download the signed order from the portal and apply for a certified copy if the authority issues one. You will need it for an execution petition or recovery certificate, for any appeal the builder files and, if things go wrong, for a claim in the builder's insolvency. Keep a note of the date the order was uploaded, because the compliance period and the 60-day appeal period both run from around that date.

Common mistakes in RERA complaints

• Filing in the wrong state or the wrong Haryana authority. Gurugram projects go to Gurugram; other Haryana districts go to Panchkula. Check the registration certificate.
• Naming the wrong company. Builders sell through group companies and change names. Use the promoter's name from the registration page and the entity that issued your receipts.
• Asking for compensation before the authority. After Newtech, compensation belongs before the adjudicating officer. Mixing the two in one complaint can lead to part of it being returned.
• No payment table. Leaving the authority to work out payments from scattered receipts invites a dispute about the amount and delays the order.
• Missing hearings. Complaints are dismissed for non-appearance. If you cannot attend, send an authorised representative and keep your contact details on the portal current.
• Running two cases for the same relief. A buyer who files in the consumer commission and before RERA for the same refund will face an objection. Choose one forum for each relief.

What if the builder ignores the RERA order?

A RERA order is enforceable. Section 40(1) makes unpaid interest, penalty and compensation recoverable as arrears of land revenue, and section 40(2) lets the authority enforce its other directions in the manner the state rules prescribe. UP RERA issues recovery certificates to the district collector, Haryana's rules provide for execution petitions before the adjudicating officer as if the order were a civil court decree, and section 63 allows the authority to impose a penalty on a builder who fails to comply.

The recovery stage has its own procedure and pitfalls, set out in our post on builder not paying after a RERA order. If the builder has been admitted into insolvency, recovery stops during the moratorium and you file your claim with the resolution professional instead, as explained in builder under insolvency: what homebuyers can do.

Before you press submit: a RERA complaint checklist

• The project's registration certificate confirms which authority you are filing before.
• Respondents are named exactly as on the registration page and your receipts.
• The complaint states the possession date and where it comes from in the agreement.
• A payment table lists every payment with date, amount and receipt number.
• The prayer says clearly whether you want a refund or delay interest, and from what date.
• Compensation, if claimed, is in a separate complaint before the adjudicating officer.
• All annexures are legible, numbered and referred to in the complaint.
• Your email address and mobile number on the portal are ones you check every day.

Having the complaint checked before filing

Most RERA complaints that run into trouble do so because of something decided at the drafting stage: the wrong respondent, an unclear prayer, a payment figure that does not match the builder's ledger. Fixing those later costs hearings. If you want the complaint and documents looked at before filing in Delhi, Noida, Ghaziabad or Gurugram, the team of Advocate B.K. Singh at B.K. Singh & Associates can read the papers and tell you what to change. Send them through our online legal enquiry, or read about Advocate B.K. Singh's practice before and after the RERA authorities and consumer commissions.