If you broker a flat in any project registered under RERA, you are required to hold your own agent registration. This is not a formality that applies only to large firms — it applies to an individual broker working two or three deals a year, and the penalty for operating without it is charged by the day.
Who has to register
Section 9 of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 requires any person who negotiates or acts on behalf of another in the sale of a plot, apartment or building in a registered project to be registered with the authority for that state. In Maharashtra that authority is MahaRERA.
The trigger is the project, not your size. Resale of an old building outside RERA does not require it; a new launch does. Most brokers end up touching both, which in practice means most brokers need to register.
What you need to apply
- PAN card
- Aadhaar card
- Address proof for your place of business
- Passport-size photograph
- Income tax returns for the preceding three years, where filed
- Details of any registration held in another state
- For a firm or company: the incorporation or partnership documents, and details of the partners or directors
The competency certificate
MahaRERA has made training and a competency examination a condition of agent registration and renewal. You complete the prescribed course, sit the examination, and the certificate you receive is submitted with your application. This was introduced to raise the standard of advice buyers receive, and it applies to renewals as well as fresh registrations.
Cost and validity
Registration fees differ for an individual and for a firm or company, with the individual fee being the lower of the two by a wide margin. A registration is valid for five years, after which it must be renewed — and renewal now carries the same competency requirement as a fresh application.
What happens if you do not register
Operating without registration attracts a penalty of ten thousand rupees for each day the default continues, and it can be escalated further for a continuing breach. There is a second cost that brokers underrate: a developer running a registered project will increasingly not pay brokerage to an unregistered agent, because the payment itself creates a compliance problem for them.
Practical points
- Your registration number must appear on your letterhead, advertisements and any listing you publish for a registered project.
- Keep a record of every transaction you broker — the authority can ask for it.
- Register the entity you actually trade as. If you invoice through a firm, register the firm rather than yourself personally.
- Start the renewal before the five years lapse. Practising on an expired registration is the same default as never registering.