How to file a RERA complaint, step by step, without a lawyer

More than 1.47 lakh complaints have been resolved by RERA authorities across India as of September 2025. Behind that statistic is a process specifically designed so that an individual flat buyer, without a lawyer, can bring a builder before a regulator. This is the full walkthrough: eligibility, grounds, documents, fees, hearings and what comes after the order.

Who can file, and against whom#

Any aggrieved person can file: a buyer, an allottee, even an association of allottees acting together. The respondent can be a promoter, an agent, or in some matters a buyer. The project generally needs to be registered, or to be one that ought to have been registered, and complaints about unregistered projects that should have registered are themselves a serious ground. If you are unsure of the status, verify the registration first.

Joint complaints by groups of buyers in the same project are common and effective. They pool evidence, split effort, and signal a pattern to the authority.

The grounds that succeed most often#

1. Delayed possession under Section 18: interest for the delay, or refund with interest. The largest category by far. Our delayed possession guide covers the maths.
2. False or misleading advertisement: the project sold to you differs from what was filed or built.
3. Deviation from sanctioned plans or unauthorised changes without the consent of two-thirds of allottees.
4. Money misuse: violations of the 70 percent escrow rule.
5. Defects after possession: the five-year structural defect liability, with a 30-day repair obligation. A delivered carpet area smaller than the agreement belongs in this family too, with its own refund arithmetic.
6. Refusal to form the society or hand over common areas and documents.
7. Charging more than 10 percent before a registered agreement.

The documents that decide cases#

Authorities decide on paper more than on argument. Your file should contain:

• Registered agreement for sale, or booking form and allotment letter if the agreement was never executed, which is itself a violation worth pleading. Our document checklist doubles as the evidence index.
• Complete payment trail: receipts, bank statements, loan disbursement letters.
• The project's RERA registration details, including the declared completion date and any extensions.
• Marketing material you relied on: brochures, advertisements, screenshots of listings.
• Correspondence with the promoter, in date order.
• A short chronology, one page, listing every event with its date. Officers read this first, and clarity here shapes the hearing.

Filing, state by state, in outline#

Every state authority runs an online complaint portal. The flow is nearly identical everywhere, with Maharashtra as the example:

1. Register as a complainant on the portal with your email and mobile.
2. Fill the complaint form: parties, project registration number, facts, relief sought. Relief should be specific: "interest at SBI MCLR plus 2 percent on Rs 62,40,000 from 1 January 2025 until handover" rather than "justice and compensation".
3. Upload the documents as PDFs, with your chronology first.
4. Pay the fee online. In Maharashtra it is Rs 5,000 for a complaint to the authority; other states range from about Rs 1,000 to Rs 5,000.
5. Receive the case number and track hearings on the portal.

If your claim is for compensation beyond interest, such as mental agony or specific losses, it goes before the adjudicating officer, a separate track with its own form in most states.

What happens at the hearing#

Hearings are short and increasingly by video conference. The promoter files a reply, you may file a rejoinder, and the officer asks focused questions on dates and payments. Three outcomes are typical: an order in your favour with a payment or performance direction, a settlement recorded midway when the builder offers terms, or dismissal when the paper does not support the claim. The Act envisages disposal within about 60 days, and while contested matters run longer, active authorities move quickly: MahaRERA disposed of more cases in 2025 than were filed in the year, a 137 percent disposal rate.

After the order: appeals and execution#

Either side can appeal to the state's Real Estate Appellate Tribunal within 60 days, and a promoter appealing a refund order generally must deposit the amount first, which discourages frivolous appeals. If the promoter simply ignores the order, you file for execution. Authorities can impose penalties, and monetary orders can be enforced as arrears of land revenue, meaning the collector's machinery can attach assets. Execution is where persistence matters most, and where group action among allottees pays off again.

The mistakes that sink complaints#

Four avoidable errors account for most weak outcomes. Vague relief: "appropriate compensation" gives the officer nothing to order, while a computed interest claim with dates gives them a number to grant. Wrong respondent: name the promoter entity on the registration certificate, not the brand name on the hoarding. Missing payment proof: claims are granted on amounts proven paid, so a missing Rs 8 lakh receipt is a missing Rs 8 lakh of relief. And unpleaded grounds: authorities decide what is before them, so if the agreement was never registered or the escrow was misused, say so in the complaint rather than saving it for the hearing.

A realistic strategy for buyers#

File early rather than waiting for the delay to become unbearable, because interest runs from the promised date regardless, and early filers are ahead in any queue against a stressed builder. Keep the claim tight and documented. Join or form a buyers' group in the project. And before your next purchase, invert the lesson: the projects that generate complaints look distinctive in their filings long before the complaints are filed. Slow quarterly progress, repeated extensions and a thin delivery record are visible in advance on any ReraGenie project page, which is exactly the point of reading them first.