A RERA number on a brochure proves nothing. Anyone can print a string of characters. What it is worth depends entirely on whether it exists on the regulator's database, whether it covers the phase you are being sold, and whether it is still valid.

Checking takes about two minutes. Here is how to verify RERA registration in West Bengal, and what to look for once you have found it.

What the number actually tells you

West Bengal registrations follow a readable pattern. Take WBRERA/P/HOW/2023/000749:

• WBRERA — the West Bengal Real Estate Regulatory Authority
• P — a project registration. An A here means an agent instead
• HOW — the district or zone. HOW is Howrah, KOL Kolkata, SOU South 24 Parganas, NOR North 24 Parganas, HOO Hooghly
• 2023 — the year of registration
• 000749 — the serial number

Two immediate checks fall out of this. Does the district code match where the project actually is? And is it a P number for the project, rather than an agent's A number being passed off as project registration?

How to check it

1. Go to the official West Bengal RERA portal at rera.wb.gov.in. Use the government site, not a portal's mirror of it.
2. Open the registered projects search.
3. Search by the registration number, or by promoter name and project name if you do not have the number.
4. Open the project record.

If nothing comes up, that is your answer. An unregistered project being marketed as registered is not a paperwork slip.

What to actually read once you find it

The promoter name. It should match the entity on your agreement and on the cheque you are being asked to write. Money going to a name that does not appear on the registration is a serious problem.

The phase covered. This is the most commonly missed check. Large developments register phase by phase. A township can be perfectly genuine while the specific tower you are buying sits in a phase that has not been registered yet.

Ask which phase your unit falls in and confirm that phase appears. Vinayak 21 Acres New Town, for instance, carries separate numbers for Phase I and Phase II.

The completion date. The portal shows the completion date the promoter committed to. Compare it against what you have been told verbally. A gap between the two is worth a direct question.

Approved plans and land documents. Registered projects upload sanctioned plans and land records. Open them. You are looking for whether the sanctioned layout matches the marketing layout.

Complaints. The authority publishes orders. A promoter with a pattern of adverse orders is telling you something the brochure will not.

Also verify the agent

Agents register too, with an A in place of the P. Ours is WBRERA/A/HOW/2025/000651 and you can look it up the same way.

An unregistered intermediary has no regulatory accountability to you at all. If someone cannot give you their number, that is the whole conversation.

Red flags worth walking away from

• The number does not appear on the portal
• The district code does not match the project's location
• An agent's A number is presented as the project's registration
• Your specific phase or tower is not covered
• The promoter on the registration differs from the payee on your cheque
• The committed completion date is materially later than what you were told
• You are asked to pay a significant amount before any registered agreement

What to do if the number does not check out

First, do not assume fraud. The most common explanation is mundane: the brochure is out of date, the phase you are being shown is registered under a different number, or someone has transcribed a digit wrongly. Ask the promoter directly for the registration certificate rather than the number alone. A genuine promoter produces it within the hour.

If the certificate does not arrive, or the project genuinely is not registered, walk away and do not leave a token amount behind while you think about it. Marketing an unregistered project is itself a contravention, and the authority accepts complaints from buyers. You can file one through the portal.

The harder situation is a project that is registered but where the details do not match what you were told, a later completion date, a different promoter entity, a phase that is not covered. That is not necessarily dishonest, but it is a signal about how carefully this developer communicates, and that tends to predict how the next three years will go.

In every one of these cases the cost of asking one more question is nothing. The cost of not asking is the entire purchase.

What RERA does and does not protect

It gives you a real forum, published commitments, carpet-area transparency and restrictions on how promoters use your money. That is meaningful and it did not exist before.

It does not guarantee delivery on time, guarantee build quality, or make a bad location a good one. Registration is a floor, not a recommendation. Plenty of registered projects are poor investments, and RERA has no opinion on that.

Do this before you pay anything

Verify the project number, verify your phase, verify the promoter matches the payee, and verify your agent. Four checks, two minutes, and they eliminate the category of problem that is genuinely unrecoverable.

Every project we represent is RERA-registered and we will hand you the number without being asked. Browse verified properties, start with buy a home, or have our legal and loan help desk run the document check with you. You may also want our guide to parcha, mutation and khajna, which covers the title side.