Nine things to check before you book an under-construction flat

Buying something that has not been built is an act of faith in a developer's balance sheet. Most projects do complete. The ones that do not tend to have told you so in advance, in documents nobody read.

Here is what to look at before the booking amount leaves your account.

1. The RERA registration number

Every project above a threshold size must be registered with the state RERA authority before it can be advertised or sold. The number should be on the hoarding, the brochure and the website.

Take it to your state RERA portal and look it up. You are checking that it exists, that it covers this tower and phase, and that the completion date on the registration matches what the sales team told you.

A project advertised without a registration number is being advertised illegally. That is enough information on its own.

2. The declared completion date

On the RERA registration, not in conversation. Developers routinely quote an internal target that is a year earlier than the date they have committed to on record. Only the recorded date carries any weight if things go wrong.

3. The title

Ask for the title search report and the development agreement. If the developer does not own the land outright — common, and not a problem in itself — you want to see the agreement giving them the right to develop and sell it.

Have a property lawyer read these. It costs a few thousand rupees against a purchase of tens of lakhs.

4. Encumbrance certificate

Shows whether the land carries existing loans or legal claims. Most projects are funded by debt against the land, which is normal. What you want to know is who the lender is and that there is a mechanism for releasing your flat from the charge on completion.

5. Approved plans, not marketing plans

The sanctioned plan approved by the local authority is a different document from the one in the brochure. Ask for the approved plan and check that the tower, the floor count and your unit exist on it.

Buildings do get sanctioned for fewer floors than are eventually advertised.

6. What the carpet area actually is

The agreement must state carpet area. If the sales conversation has only ever used super built-up figures, convert before you compare prices — see our piece on the three area numbers.

7. The payment schedule

Under RERA, payments should be linked to construction milestones, not to calendar dates. A schedule demanding a large percentage up front, before anything is built, moves the risk onto you.

Read what happens if you delay a payment. Then read what happens if they delay delivery. The two are rarely symmetrical.

8. Go and look at the site

Not the show flat — the site. How much is actually built? Are there workers on it today? Is the tower you are buying into out of the ground, or is it still a line on a plan while a different tower gets finished first?

Photograph what you see, with the date. It is the only record you will have of the state of the project on the day you committed.

9. The developer's last three projects

Not the brochure's version — the buildings. Visit one. Ask a resident two questions: how late was it, and what broke first.

Ten minutes in a lobby will tell you more than any amount of marketing material.

The uncomfortable one

Ask the sales team what happens to your money if the project stalls. There is a correct answer involving the RERA escrow requirement, under which a defined share of collections must stay in a separate account for construction of that project.

Whether they can answer it clearly tells you a good deal about who you are dealing with.

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We film completed, occupied buildings and publish the papers we hold on file. When something is under construction, we say so on the page.