Why Winning Before HRERA Is Often Only Half the Battle- Feedback Invited
Is HRERA working for homebuyers? We want to hear from you.
A call for public consultation on making Haryana RERA more consumer-friendly — and an invitation to help shape HRERA Reform 2.0.
When Parliament enacted the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016, it promised something every homebuyer desperately needed — a specialised regulator that would make the real estate sector more transparent, accountable and consumer-friendly.
There is no denying that RERA has transformed the regulatory landscape. It has brought greater transparency, mandatory project registration and a dedicated forum where homebuyers can seek redress against defaulting developers. For countless families, RERA has become an important avenue for justice. Yet after nearly a decade of implementation, a more fundamental question deserves attention.
This article is based on my experience as both a homebuyer and an advocate appearing before the Haryana Real Estate Regulatory Authority (HRERA), Gurugram, while assisting homebuyers in real estate disputes. The observations below are drawn from practical challenges repeatedly encountered during the filing, adjudication and enforcement stages of HRERA proceedings.
Has the consumer's journey through HRERA become as simple, accessible and effective as Parliament intended?
This article is not intended as a criticism of HRERA or any individual officer, nor does it suggest that the institution has failed in its purpose. On the contrary, I believe RERA remains one of the most significant consumer protection reforms enacted in India's real estate sector. But every institution must evolve — and the time has come to ask whether HRERA's procedures can be made more consumer-friendly while preserving fairness, efficiency and due process.
The Reality on the Ground
📋 Justice Should Not Begin with Procedural Complexity
The first challenge many homebuyers face is not the builder — it is the process of approaching the regulator itself. A consumer who has already endured years of delayed possession, continuing EMIs and financial uncertainty is expected to navigate a complaint process that is often technical and procedure-driven: online registration, prescribed pleadings, annexures, fee calculation, service of copies and proof of service, before the matter is even listed. For lawyers, these are familiar requirements. For an ordinary homebuyer, they can become barriers to accessing justice.
⚖️ Winning the Case Should Not Mean Starting Another Battle
Most homebuyers believe that once HRERA rules in their favour, their struggle is over. Unfortunately, that is not always the case. When the compliance period expires without payment, the burden often shifts back to the consumer — certified copies, an execution petition, additional fees, and a fresh round of proceedings simply to enforce what has already been ordered.
A regulatory authority should not merely pronounce rights. It should also ensure that its orders are meaningfully implemented.
🔄 One Wrong Should Not Require Multiple Proceedings
Many homebuyers also find it difficult to understand why relief arising from the very same dispute can require multiple proceedings — one form of relief before the Authority, compensation pursued separately before the Adjudicating Officer. From a legal perspective this may follow the statutory framework; from a consumer's perspective, it often feels like one dispute being divided into multiple battles. Justice should be comprehensive wherever the law permits — not fragmented.
The Real Measure of Success
HRERA's effectiveness should not be measured only by the number of complaints disposed of. The more meaningful question is this: how many homebuyers receive actual relief without spending additional months or years pursuing implementation? The objective of a consumer protection law is not merely to pass orders — it is to ensure those orders translate into timely, effective relief.
Moving From Observation to Action
These experiences prompted me to prepare a policy paper examining whether HRERA's procedures can be made more consumer-friendly without compromising fairness or regulatory discipline. It proposes reforms relating to simplified complaint filing, end-to-end digital processes, automatic compliance monitoring, stronger enforcement mechanisms, greater transparency and improved consumer experience — under the banner of HRERA Reform 2.0: A Consumer Justice Blueprint for Haryana.
But before finalising those recommendations, they should be tested against the experiences of others. No policy paper should be based on one person's experience alone.
How You Can Help
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Read the Policy Brief
Review the proposed reforms — simplified filing, automatic compliance monitoring, integrated relief and stronger enforcement — using the links below.
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Share Your Experience
If you have appeared before HRERA — as a homebuyer, advocate, authorised representative, developer, academic or other stakeholder — tell us what worked and what didn't. Positive experiences matter just as much as difficult ones: good policy is built on evidence, not assumptions.
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Submit Your Feedback
Write in with comments, case studies or suggestions before the Consultation Draft is finalised and shared with HRERA, the Government of Haryana and other policymakers.
💬 Questions we'd love your thoughts on
Our Goal
- ✓ Simplified, accessible complaint filing that doesn't require legal expertise
- ✓ A complete, end-to-end digital process — from filing to execution
- ✓ Automatic compliance monitoring, so enforcement doesn't restart as fresh litigation
- ✓ Stronger, faster enforcement mechanisms with real consequences for delay
- ✓ Greater transparency through public compliance data
- ✓ A measurably better consumer experience, not just faster case disposal
A homebuyer approaches HRERA because the builder has failed. The system should not require the consumer to suffer again simply to obtain the benefit of an order already passed in their favour.
Join the Consultation
Have you appeared before HRERA, represented homebuyers or developers, or have suggestions to improve how it functions? We want to hear from you.
Every submission helps refine our recommendations before they are shared with HRERA, the Government of Haryana and other policymakers. Our objective is simple — not to weaken RERA, not to criticise HRERA, but to help make Haryana's real estate regulatory system more accessible, efficient and genuinely consumer-friendly.

