RERA Verification Checklist for Chennai Homebuyers
How to verify a Chennai property's RERA registration before you book — what to check on the TNRERA portal, and the red flags that mean you should walk away.
Published 11 October 2026
Why RERA matters before you book anything
The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 requires any project above 500 sq. m. or with more than 8 units to register with the state regulator before it can be advertised, marketed, or sold. In Tamil Nadu, that regulator is TNRERA (Tamil Nadu Real Estate Regulatory Authority).
A registered project is legally bound to deliver what was promised — the sanctioned plan, the amenities listed, and the possession date filed with the regulator. An unregistered project carries none of those protections, and promoting one without registration is itself an offence under the Act.
Where to actually check
Every TNRERA-registered project has a unique registration number in the format TN/<area>/Building/<year>/<number>. You can look this number up directly on the TNRERA portal (rera.tn.gov.in) to see the registered promoter, sanctioned plan, project timeline, and any complaints filed against it.
Don't just take a builder's word that a project is "RERA approved" — ask for the exact registration number and search it yourself. A real number will pull up the project's actual filing; a fabricated or reused number won't match, or will belong to a different project entirely.
What to check once you find the listing
Promoter details match the entity you're actually signing an agreement with — not a group company or a differently-named subsidiary.
The sanctioned plan matches what's being marketed to you — same number of floors, same unit configuration, same amenities. Builders occasionally market amenities that were never part of the RERA-filed plan.
The quarterly progress updates (for under-construction projects) are current and roughly match what you see on site — large gaps between filed progress and visible construction are worth asking about directly.
The declared possession date, since RERA entitles buyers to compensation if a registered project misses its filed timeline — but only if the project was registered with that date in the first place.
Red flags that mean you should walk away
No RERA number offered at all for a project that's clearly above the registration threshold — this is a legal requirement, not a nice-to-have.
A RERA number that, when searched, belongs to a different project, a different phase, or has lapsed/expired registration.
Pressure to book or pay a token amount "before" the RERA number is available — a legitimate, registered project has nothing to hide here.
How HomeLens handles this
Every new-launch listing on HomeLens carries its actual RERA registration number where the developer has filed one, shown directly on the property page — you don't have to take anyone's word for it, and you can cross-check it on the TNRERA portal yourself before your advisor ever brings up a site visit.