How to read a quarterly progress report

When you buy a home that isn't built yet, you are trusting the developer's timeline. In Haryana, the promoter of every registered project must tell the regulator, every quarter and in public, how far the work has got. This guide shows you where to find those reports and how to read them.

What the law asks for

Section 11(1) of the RERA Act says the promoter must keep a web page for the project on the authority's website, open to the public, and update these every quarter:^[1]

• the number and types of apartments or plots booked;
• the number of garages booked;
• the approvals taken, and the approvals still pending after the commencement certificate;
• the status of the project.

Haryana's rules add detail. Within fifteen days of the end of each quarter, the promoter uploads the bookings, the parking booked, the status of construction of each building with photographs, the status of internal infrastructure and common areas with photographs, and the approvals received, applied for and still to be applied for.^[2] HARERA Gurugram's regulations set the format of the report, called the quarterly progress report or QPR, and ask for it to reach the authority before the 15th of the month after the quarter ends.^[3]

Find the reports

1. Open HARERA Gurugram's Registered Projects list and find the project. Our guide to the list explains how.
2. In the View Quarterly Progress column, open View. A table lists each quarter with its number, start date and end date, such as “1 of 2021”, and a View Details button.^[5]
3. If the column says “QPR not Uploaded” instead, the list shows no report for that project. On the day we read it, 173 of the 1,082 projects on the list showed those words.^[5]

What's in a report

The regulations set out the report in parts.^[3]

With each report come certificates from an architect, an engineer and a chartered accountant, each in practice, that money taken out of the project's separate account matches the percentage of the project completed.^{[3, 4]}

The separate account, in one paragraph

Under section 4(2)(l)(D) of the Act, seventy per cent of the money a promoter collects from buyers for a project goes into a separate account in a scheduled bank, to cover the cost of construction and the land, and is used only for that. Money can come out only in proportion to the work completed, after an engineer, an architect and a chartered accountant certify it, and the accounts must be audited within six months of the end of each financial year.^[1] The quarterly report is where those withdrawals show up.

How to read it: six checks

1. Progress against time. Set the actual percentages in Part A against the time left until the registration's validity date, which is the completion period the promoter declared. A large gap is a question to ask, not proof of a delay.
2. Missing quarters. Count the quarters since registration and see that each one has a report. Our own rule: we don't show a project whose reports are missing for two quarters in a row with no reason on record. See how we check.
3. Estimated against actual. Each report gives both. If actual work trails the estimate quarter after quarter, ask why, and what the plan is now.
4. Your tower. Progress is reported tower by tower. Find the one you're buying in, not the project's average.
5. Approvals. Part C lists approvals received, expired and applied for. An approval that has expired, or is still pending, is a question to ask.
6. Money and photographs. Withdrawals and collections should move with the work. The photographs should show the stage the report claims.

A promoter that breaks the Act, the rules or the regulations, for example by not filing, can be fined up to five per cent of the estimated cost of the project under section 61.^[1]

What a report can't tell you

A quarterly report is the promoter's own account, with professionals' certificates. HARERA Gurugram has made regulations for a compliance cell, whose work includes checking on site that the spending shown in reports matches the progress there and the architect's certificate.^[6] Even so, a report is not a promise of a completion date, and nothing replaces seeing the site, yourself or through someone you trust.