Short answer: a registered promoter in Karnataka owes K-RERA a quarterly update within 15 days of every quarter end (the next is due 15 October 2026), supported by three certificates: Form-4 from the chartered accountant, Form-5 from the architect and Form-6 from the engineer. Form-4 is also the certificate that fixes how much may be withdrawn from the designated account, which must receive 70% of collections. Once a year the statutory auditor issues the Form-7 annual audit report; for 2025-26 it is due by 15 November 2026. Around those fixed dates sit event-based obligations (extension, bank change, completion, handover), each with its own form and penalty.
The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act 2016 is a central Act. The forms, portal, due dates and most penalty amounts are Karnataka's own, from the Karnataka Rules 2017, the K-RERA (General) Regulations 2022, the RERA Bank Account Directions 2020 and K-RERA circulars. This page puts them in one calendar, and the checklist below turns it into a spreadsheet to work through project by project.
| Date | What falls due | Form | Signed by |
|---|
| 30 Sep 2026 | Quarter 2 of 2026-27 ends. Accounts for 2025-26 must be audited by now: the Act allows six months from year end | — | Statutory auditor |
| 15 Oct 2026 | Quarterly update for July–September 2026 | QU on portal + Forms 4, 5, 6 | CA, architect, engineer; promoter uploads |
| 15 Nov 2026 | Annual audit report for 2025-26, with audited accounts and income-tax return | Form-7 | Statutory auditor |
| 15 Jan 2027 | Quarterly update for October–December 2026 | QU + Forms 4, 5, 6 | As above |
| 15 Apr 2027 | Quarterly update for January–March 2027 | QU + Forms 4, 5, 6 | As above |
| 15 Jul 2027 | Quarterly update for April–June 2027 | QU + Forms 4, 5, 6 | As above |
| 30 Sep 2027 | Audit of 2026-27 accounts due; K-RERA announces the Form-7 submission date by circular | Form-7 | Statutory auditor |
Quarterly dates come from Rule 15(1)(D) and K-RERA's circular of 19 June 2026. The 15 November date is set by Circular No. RERA/Accounts/CR/20/2026-27 of the same day. K-RERA has extended Form-7 dates before (2024-25 was pushed to 31 December 2025 and then 20 January 2026) and then charged penalties from the day after the last extension. Treat an extension as a possibility, not a plan.
Regulation 3 of the 2022 Regulations makes the promoter designate one chartered accountant, one architect and one engineer for the project. None of them can be removed without the Authority's prior concurrence. The CA's registration certificate also says a new CA cannot be engaged without a no-objection certificate from the existing one.
| Certificate | Karnataka form | Signed by | When |
|---|
| Estimated cost, designated account, no pre-registration bookings | Form-1 | Designated CA in practice | Registration |
| Architect's certificate | Form-2 | Project architect | Registration |
| Engineer's certificate (estimated construction cost) | Form-3 | Project engineer | Registration |
| Collections, deposits, cost incurred, amount withdrawable | Form-4 | Designated CA | Every quarter; before any withdrawal |
| Percentage of completion | Form-5 | Project architect | Every quarter |
| Construction cost and work done | Form-6 | Project engineer | Every quarter |
| Annual report on statement of accounts | Form-7 | Statutory auditor of the promoter | Every year |
If you have read MahaRERA material, the numbers will look wrong. Maharashtra uses Form 3 for the CA's withdrawal certificate and Form 5 for the annual report. In Karnataka those are Form-4 and Form-7.
The rule most promoters miss: the Explanation to Regulation 3(1) says the CA who certifies progress for withdrawals must be a different entity from the statutory auditor of the promoter's business. Form-7 is signed by the statutory auditor. So every promoter needs two firms, and a practice can be the designated CA on one promoter's projects and the Form-7 auditor on another's, but never both for the same promoter.
Your own accountant, in-house or outsourced, signs none of these certificates. The work that decides whether they can be signed happens in your books all the same:
- project-wise ledgers, so land and construction cost can be traced to one registered project;
- a collection register by unit, splitting consideration from pass-through charges and indirect taxes, because the 70% is computed on consideration only;
- monthly reconciliation of the collection, designated and current accounts;
- a record of every withdrawal against the Form-4 that supported it;
- the unsold-inventory list, which Form-4 values at the guidance value (ASR) to test whether 70% or 100% must be deposited.
Where those records are clean, the certificates are a verification exercise. Where they are not, the certificates get qualified, and Form-7 asks the auditor to list every qualification in Forms 4, 5 and 6 for the year.
Section 4(2)(l)(D) of the Act requires 70% of amounts realised from allottees to go into a separate account in a scheduled bank. It may be used only for land and construction cost of that project, and withdrawn only in proportion to completion, after an engineer, an architect and a chartered accountant in practice have certified it.
Karnataka adds detail through Regulation 29 and the Bank Account Directions 2020:
| Point | Karnataka requirement |
|---|
| When opened | Before applying for registration, in the local branch of a scheduled bank where the project is |
| How many | One RERA bank account per registered project, and each phase is a separate project |
| Name | "[Promoter]-RERA Designated Account of [Project]" |
| Deposit | 70% of collections excluding pass-through charges and indirect taxes; 100% where the project's remaining receivables fall short of the cost still to be incurred |
| Nature | No-lien account; fixed deposits allowed only as no-lien deposits, with no loan or charge against them |
| Quarterly proof | Bank's no-lien certificate on any deposit; CA-certified account statement appended to Form-4 |
K-RERA's Form-4 asks for three accounts, not one: a collection account receiving 100% of allottee receipts, the designated account receiving 70%, and the promoter's current account receiving 30%.
How much can be withdrawn. Form-4 does the arithmetic. It takes the total estimated project cost, the cost incurred to date and two completion percentages: the architect's (Form-5) and the CA's (cost incurred divided by total estimated cost). The lower of the two is applied to the total estimated cost, and withdrawals to date are deducted. What is left is the net amount this certificate allows. Two Karnataka-specific rules feed the calculation. Under Rule 5, land is taken at the higher of acquisition cost or guidance value. Construction cost counts at the lower of the engineer's estimate and actual cost in the books.
Form-4 is framed around quarter ends, and Form-7 tests each year's withdrawals against the quarterly Form-4s. The Act's order is certificate first, withdrawal second. Withdrawing ahead of the certificate, or above the net figure, is the finding that shows up in Form-7 as "withdrawal in excess of eligible amount". The worked mechanics are in the withdrawal certificate and the designated account.
Section 11(1) requires the promoter to keep the project's web page on the K-RERA portal current every quarter: units booked, garages booked, approvals received and pending, and construction status. Rule 15(1)(D) of the Karnataka Rules sets the deadline at fifteen days from the end of each quarter and adds photographs of each building, each floor and the common areas.
| Quarter | Period | Due |
|---|
| Q1 | April–June | 15 July |
| Q2 | July–September | 15 October |
| Q3 | October–December | 15 January |
| Q4 | January–March | 15 April |
The update is filed through the Post Registration and Quarterly Update login, with Forms 4, 5 and 6 attached. K-RERA's circular of 19 June 2026 requires updates to continue until every activity reaches 100%, when a final summary is enabled and the architect certifies completion.
K-RERA's circular of 20 January 2026 set a penalty of ₹25,000 per quarterly update filed late or not at all for 2025-26. The circular of 2 July 2026 continues ₹25,000 per quarter for 2026-27, with recovery action from 16 July 2026. The booking figures are also public, which is why the GST department compares them with returns. See RERA filings vs GST returns. Filing mechanics and the penalty history are in K-RERA quarterly progress reports.
The third proviso to Section 4(2)(l)(D) requires the promoter's accounts to be audited within six months of each financial year end. The CA must verify that project money was spent on that project and that withdrawals followed the percentage of completion. In Karnataka this is Form-7, signed by the statutory auditor and filed on the portal's separate Annual Audit module.
For 2025-26, the circular of 19 June 2026 requires Form-7 by 15 November 2026, together with the audited profit and loss account, the balance sheet with schedules, the cash flow statement, the income-tax return and the auditor's report. Its annexures cover collections at 100% and 70%, cost against estimate, withdrawals against the eligible amount, liabilities and borrowings, and a yes/no schedule: any deposit under lien, more than 10% taken without a registered agreement, unregistered agents paid.
Late or missing Form-7 is penalised under Section 60. For 2024-25 K-RERA set a per-year slab by estimated project cost: ₹20,000 below ₹25 crore, ₹25,000 up to ₹50 crore, ₹50,000 up to ₹100 crore and ₹1,00,000 above. The 2025-26 figures have not been announced. The report itself is covered in Form-7: the K-RERA annual audit report.
| Event | What is required | Where it comes from |
|---|
| Every advertisement | K-RERA registration number at the top right, in lettering at least half the size of the project name; the K-RERA website address; "RERA Registered" panel at least 10% of the advertisement; no "subject to change" disclaimer; number read out on radio and in SMS; number on the site board | s.11(2); circulars of 14.11.2019 and 13.12.2019 (digital portals) |
| Every booking | No more than 10% of the price before a registered agreement for sale in the prescribed form | s.13; Rule 8A |
| Plans at site | Sanctioned plans and specifications displayed at the site and the registered office | Reg 3(3); penalty under s.61 |
| Change of plan | Consent of two-thirds of allottees for changes to the building or common areas; modification certificates from CA, architect and engineer | s.14(2); portal modification module |
| Change of bank | Prior permission of the Authority; bank NOC, fund-transfer and closure letters, CA certificate | Reg 29(5); portal Forms B1–B7 |
| Change of CA, architect or engineer | Prior concurrence of the Authority; NOC from the outgoing CA | Reg 3(1); Form-1 note |
| Transfer of majority rights | Consent of two-thirds of allottees and prior approval of the Authority | s.15 |
| Extension of registration | Application at least three months before expiry, fee of half the registration fee (nil for force majeure), certificates on work done, funds used and funds needed, and an affidavit. Aggregate extension under s.6 is capped at one year | s.6; Rule 7; circular of 17.12.2019; portal Forms Ex1–Ex7 |
| Completion | Occupancy or completion certificate obtained and shared; final quarterly update at 100%; completion application with CA, architect and engineer certificates and an affidavit | s.11(4)(b); portal completion module |
| Association | Enable its formation under local law (for apartments, commonly the Karnataka Apartment Ownership Act 1972); where no local law applies, within three months of a majority of units being booked | s.11(4)(e) |
| Handover | Conveyance deeds, and common areas and documents to the association, within the local-law period; absent one, conveyance within three months of occupancy certificate and documents within thirty days of completion certificate | s.17 |
| Defect liability | Structural and workmanship defects notified within five years of handing over possession to be fixed free of charge within thirty days | s.14(3) |
| Refunds and delay interest | SBI highest MCLR plus 2%, paid within sixty days of falling due | Rules 16 and 17 |
Two of these tend to go wrong. Extension has to be applied for early and backed by a CA certificate of funds needed to finish. The one-year cap under Section 6 is why so many projects end up in the Section 7(3) route, which K-RERA has priced at half the registration fee again. See project extension and delay interest. Completion is also a tax date: unsold inventory at the completion certificate sets out what falls due on that day.
K-RERA's circular 03/2019 of 31 October 2019 treats a landowner with an area or revenue share as a promoter. The developer registers the whole project including the landowner's share. The development agreement is uploaded, and both file a joint affidavit. If the landowner sells from its share before the completion or occupancy certificate, 70% of those proceeds go into the project's designated account. The developer reports those sales in its quarterly updates. Who has to register, and how landowners fit, is covered in which projects need RERA registration.
| Section | Default | Maximum |
|---|
| 59 | Advertising, booking or selling without registration | 10% of estimated project cost; if continued, imprisonment up to three years or a further 10%, or both |
| 60 | False information, or breach of Section 4 (70% account, withdrawals, audit) | 5% of estimated project cost |
| 61 | Breach of any other provision, rule or regulation (quarterly updates, advertisements, display of plans) | 5% of estimated project cost |
| 63 | Not complying with the Authority's orders or directions | Daily, cumulatively up to 5% |
K-RERA's fixed amounts (₹25,000 per late quarterly update, the Form-7 slabs) are how it applies these powers to routine defaults; they do not cap them. Regulation 3(2) also lets the Authority refer a professional whose certificate is contradicted by Form-7 to that professional's institute.
The checklist below has per-quarter, annual, per-withdrawal and event-based tables, and a withdrawal computation laid out as Form-4 does it. Work through it with the designated CA before each quarter end, not after. The practice acts as designated CA for Forms 1 and 4, files quarterly updates, and audits for Form-7, and takes only one of the two CA roles for any one promoter.
This note summarises the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act 2016, the Karnataka Rules 2017, the K-RERA (General) Regulations 2022 and K-RERA circulars read on 29 September 2026. It is not legal advice on a particular project. K-RERA sets and extends dates by circular, and the portal's current forms, due dates and penalty amounts should be confirmed on rera.karnataka.gov.in before any filing is made or any withdrawal is taken.