RERA Complaint Madhya Pradesh: How to File One

A RERA complaint Madhya Pradesh allottees bring is filed online with the Madhya Pradesh Real Estate Regulatory Authority, which sits at Bhopal, and not in a civil court. Section 79 of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act 2016 expressly bars civil courts from entertaining any suit in respect of a matter the Authority or the Appellate Tribunal is empowered to decide. Sending a legal notice and then filing a recovery suit in the district court is the single most common wasted year in these disputes.

The other thing worth knowing before you start is that there are two forums inside the same building. Section 31 lets an aggrieved person complain to the Authority or to the adjudicating officer. Refund, interest on a delay, and enforcement of the promoter’s statutory obligations go to the Authority. A claim for compensation goes to the adjudicating officer under Section 71. Filing the wrong one costs time, because the file gets transferred rather than decided.

One qualification before anything else. The complaint follows the project, not the buyer. A Jabalpur resident who has booked a flat in Pune complains to the Maharashtra authority, not to the Madhya Pradesh one. The Authority here handles projects registered in this State.

Check three things before you draft anything

Before drafting a RERA complaint Madhya Pradesh allottees should settle three questions, because each one changes what the complaint asks for.

One, is the project registered? Section 3(2) requires registration where the land proposed to be developed exceeds 500 square metres or where more than eight apartments are proposed, counting all phases. Search the project on the Authority’s website and download the registration certificate. If the project should have been registered and is not, that is itself a contravention carrying a penalty of up to ten percent of the estimated project cost under Section 59, and it strengthens the complaint considerably.

Two, what does the agreement for sale actually say about possession? Section 18 hangs on the date specified in the agreement. Read the possession clause with its grace period, its force majeure wording and its definition of what counts as offering possession. Promoters draft these carefully, and the promised date in the brochure is frequently not the date in the agreement.

Three, what is on the project’s web page? Section 11(1) requires the promoter to maintain a page on the Authority’s website with quarterly updates on the status of the project, approvals received and apartments booked. Those quarterly filings are the promoter’s own admissions about progress, and they are downloadable. Take dated copies before you file, because pages are updated.

Which forum, and for what

You want	Forum	Provision
Refund of the amount paid, with interest	The Authority	Section 18(1)(a) read with Section 31
Interest for every month of delayed possession	The Authority	Section 18(1)(b)
Rectification of structural or workmanship defects	The Authority	Section 14(3)
Execution of the conveyance deed and handover of common areas	The Authority	Section 17
Compensation for loss, over and above interest	Adjudicating officer	Sections 12, 14, 18 and 19 read with Section 71
Penalty on the promoter for non registration or false information	The Authority	Sections 59 to 61

The distinction between interest and compensation is worth pausing on. Interest is a formula. It is the statutory price of the promoter holding your money past the agreed date, and the Authority awards it without you proving loss. Compensation is a claim for actual loss, the rent you paid elsewhere, the extra home loan interest, the cost of a delayed shift, and it needs proof. Section 72 tells the adjudicating officer to weigh the promoter’s disproportionate gain, the loss caused and whether the default is repetitive.

The grounds beyond delay

Delay is the commonest complaint but not the only one.

• Section 12. A false or incorrect statement in an advertisement, prospectus or model apartment. If you booked on the strength of it and want out, the promoter must return the entire investment with interest.
• Section 13. No promoter may take a deposit or advance of more than ten percent of the cost of the apartment without first executing a registered agreement for sale. Builders who collect thirty percent against an allotment letter are in breach.
• Section 14. Departure from the sanctioned plans and specifications. Major alterations to the sanctioned plan need the previous written consent of at least two thirds of the allottees. Sub section (3) is the defect liability clause: any structural defect or defect in workmanship, quality or provision of services brought to the promoter’s notice within five years from the date of handing over possession must be rectified without further charge within thirty days, failing which the allottee is entitled to compensation.
• Section 4(2)(l)(D). Seventy percent of the amounts realised from allottees must sit in a separate account in a scheduled bank and be withdrawn only in proportion to completion, certified by an engineer, an architect and a chartered accountant. Diversion of project money is a serious contravention and often explains a stalled site.
• Section 17. Conveyance of title, execution of the registered deed and handover of the common areas to the association of allottees.

How the complaint runs

A RERA complaint Madhya Pradesh accepts is filed online, in the form prescribed by the Madhya Pradesh Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Rules 2017, with the fee the Rules set. Confirm the current fee on the Authority’s website rather than relying on an older article, since it is revised from time to time.

Attach the documents that carry the case. In practice that is the allotment letter, the registered agreement for sale, every payment receipt and bank statement showing the money going out, the home loan sanction and disbursement letters, the demand letters from the promoter, all correspondence about possession, and the downloaded quarterly progress reports. A complaint with a clean, dated payment schedule is decided faster than one that asks the Authority to reconstruct the account.

Section 71(2) requires an application for compensation to be disposed of within sixty days of receipt, with reasons recorded if it takes longer, and the Authority works to a comparable expectation on its own complaints. Treat sixty days as the statutory intention rather than a guarantee. Hearings are held at Bhopal, and video conferencing has been used for parties who are elsewhere, which matters if you are an allottee in Jabalpur with a flat booked in another city.

If the promoter is willing to talk, a settlement recorded before the Authority is enforceable as an order, and it is usually quicker than fighting to a contested decision. That is a judgement call about whether the promoter can actually perform, not just whether the offer sounds reasonable.

The interest rate, and how it is worked out

The Rules define the interest payable by a promoter to an allottee, and by an allottee to a promoter, by reference to the State Bank of India’s highest marginal cost of lending rate plus two percent. Because that benchmark moves, check the rate applicable for the relevant period rather than assuming a figure.

Two features of the formula are worth noting. The same rate applies both ways, so a promoter who is being charged interest for delay cannot simultaneously charge a penal rate for a late instalment. And interest under Section 18(1)(b) runs for every month of delay until possession is actually handed over, which means the amount keeps growing while the case is pending.

Appeal, and the deposit that comes with it

An appeal against an order of the Authority or the adjudicating officer lies to the Madhya Pradesh Real Estate Appellate Tribunal under Section 44, within sixty days.

The proviso to Section 43(5) is the provision allottees should know about. Where the promoter appeals, the appeal is not entertained until he deposits at least thirty percent of the penalty imposed, or such higher percentage as the Tribunal may determine, or the total amount payable to the allottee including interest and compensation, whichever is higher. That requirement is what prevents an appeal from being used purely as a delaying device.

From the Tribunal, Section 58 provides an appeal to the High Court within sixty days of communication of the decision.

Getting the money, not just the order

An order is not a payment. Section 40(1) allows any interest, penalty or compensation ordered to be recovered as arrears of land revenue, through a recovery certificate issued to the District Collector. That is the standard route, and it is why the correct identification of the promoter entity and its assets in the complaint matters.

Two more pressure points exist. Section 63 lets the Authority impose a penalty for every day of continuing default in complying with its order, cumulatively up to five percent of the estimated project cost. Section 64 makes failure to comply with a Tribunal order punishable with imprisonment up to three years, or a daily fine cumulatively up to ten percent of the estimated cost, or both.

RERA, the consumer commission or insolvency

An allottee is not confined to one forum, and the right choice depends on what the project needs.

• RERA is the fastest route to refund, interest and project specific directions, and the Authority can act against the promoter’s registration.
• The consumer commissions remain available. Section 88 says the Act is in addition to and not in derogation of other laws, and the Supreme Court has confirmed that a consumer complaint is not barred. Deficiency in service and unfair trade practice claims can be pursued there, and the pecuniary limits decide which commission.
• Insolvency under Section 7 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016 is a blunt instrument. Allottees are financial creditors, but since the 2020 amendment they must apply jointly, and the application needs not less than 100 allottees of the same project or ten percent of the total allottees, whichever is less. It suits a genuinely dead project, not a slow one, because a resolution process usually delays possession further.

Do not run two forums on the same cause of action at the same time. Pick one, and say clearly in the complaint that no other proceeding is pending on the same claim.

On limitation: the Act prescribes no period for filing a complaint. In practice the residuary three year period under the Limitation Act 1963 is applied to claims of this kind, and a stale claim invites a preliminary objection. The absence of a stated deadline is not an invitation to wait.

We act for allottees and for developers in matters before the Authority and the Appellate Tribunal, and that work sits within our real estate and property practice. A large share of the RERA complaint Madhya Pradesh files that reach us trace back to a document that was never properly executed or registered at the booking stage, which is the subject of our note on property registration in Madhya Pradesh. Other explanations of procedure are collected in our insights section.

This article is general information about the law and not legal advice on any particular project or booking. What a complaint should ask for depends on your agreement, your payment history and the state of the site. To discuss your own facts, reach us through the contact page.