The Haryana Real Estate Regulatory Authority (H-RERA) Gurugram bench imposed penalties on 45 real estate developers in the third quarter of 2025 — July to September — marking a significant escalation in enforcement activity under the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act 2016. The enforcement actions covered violations across three principal categories: failure to update project disclosures on the H-RERA portal, mismanagement of the statutory escrow account, and making misrepresentations regarding possession timelines to home buyers. For developers operating projects in Gurugram, Faridabad, and across the Delhi NCR real estate market, the enforcement trend signals that H-RERA has moved from a registration-and-register posture to an active compliance-monitoring posture.
Disclosure Violations
Section 11 of RERA requires promoters to update the RERA website with quarterly progress reports, financial statements, and project completion data. H-RERA's enforcement orders in Q3 2025 indicate that 23 of the 45 penalty actions involved failures to upload quarterly progress reports on schedule or failures to update the project status following receipt of occupation certificates or completion certificates from the local development authority. Penalties ranged from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 50 lakh per project per quarter of non-disclosure.
H-RERA has additionally indicated that promoters who upload incomplete or inaccurate project information — including understating the total receivable amount from unit buyers or overstating the percentage of construction completed — will be treated as making false disclosures under Section 60 of RERA, which carries penalties of up to 5% of the estimated project cost and potential criminal liability for the promoter's directors.
Escrow Account Non-Compliance
Section 4(2)(l)(D) of RERA requires that 70% of the amounts realised from allottees be deposited in a designated bank account and used only for land cost and construction cost of the project. H-RERA's Q3 2025 enforcement orders include 15 cases in which developers withdrew amounts from the designated account in excess of the permissible drawdown — typically for servicing external borrowings, paying marketing costs, or funding other projects in the developer's portfolio. Withdrawal of escrow funds for non-project purposes is treated as a serious violation.
Several enforcement orders addressed the practice of maintaining multiple RERA registrations for a single project by splitting it into phases, while routing funds across phase accounts to obscure the true escrow utilisation. H-RERA has adopted a project-level consolidated view for escrow compliance purposes, looking at aggregate inflows and outflows across all registered phases of a development. Developers that have structured their project registrations in a manner designed to provide financial flexibility rather than regulatory transparency face elevated enforcement exposure.
Delayed Possession and Compensation Claims
Section 18 of RERA entitles allottees to a refund of the amount paid with interest, or compensation at the applicable rate under RERA, where possession is delayed beyond the committed date. H-RERA's Q3 2025 orders include 7 cases in which developers resisted buyer refund and compensation claims by asserting force majeure — specifically citing COVID-related project delays — for possession dates that had already been extended by three to four years. H-RERA rejected force majeure defences for delays that began before March 2020 or that continued beyond 24 months after construction sites reopened.
The interest rate applicable to delayed compensation under Haryana rules remains MCLR plus 2% — which, at current MCLR levels, is approximately 10.5% to 11% per annum on the amounts paid by allottees. For delayed projects with large numbers of unit buyers, the accumulated compensation liability is substantial. Developers in this position should obtain a legal quantification of total exposure before structuring any settlement offers or addressing H-RERA proceedings.
Compliance Programme for Developers
The Q3 2025 enforcement activity confirms that H-RERA's compliance monitoring has become systematic — using portal data analytics to identify projects with overdue disclosures and escrow anomalies before receiving buyer complaints. Developers that maintain proactive RERA compliance programmes face materially lower enforcement risk than those that respond only to complaint-driven notices. A proactive compliance programme must include: monthly portal update verification, quarterly escrow reconciliation and RERA-compliant CA certification of drawdowns, annual review of project completion timelines with formal variation notice where delays are anticipated, and a documented process for handling allottee complaints within the 30-day RERA complaint resolution timeline.
Action Items for Delhi NCR Real Estate Developers
- Audit all registered RERA projects for portal disclosure currency — identify and upload any overdue quarterly progress reports before H-RERA suo motu initiates action.
- Conduct an escrow account reconciliation and confirm that all withdrawals are supported by RERA-compliant CA certifications and fall within construction cost drawdown limits.
- Review any pending allottee refund or compensation claims and assess the defensibility of any force majeure positions asserted in proceedings.
- Where possession delays are anticipated, issue proactive variation notices to allottees and update the RERA portal before the committed possession date passes.
- Establish a quarterly RERA compliance review as a standing agenda item for the developer's legal and finance teams.