MahaRERA has directed a real estate agent to pay a Mumbai homebuyer 1% of the sale consideration, ruling that going back on a written brokerage-sharing promise amounts to unfair trade practice under RERA.
A written email is usually treated as a formality in real estate transactions, something everyone assumes but rarely enforces. MahaRERA just made clear that assumption can cost an agent real money. The regulator has directed a registered real estate agent to pay a homebuyer 1% of the total sale consideration, after the agent went back on a written commitment to share part of his commission once the deal closed.
The agent stood to earn 2% to 2.5% commission from the developer for facilitating the sale of an apartment in a high-rise project in Mumbai's Kandivali East. He and the buyer had mutually agreed that 1% of that commission would be passed back to the buyer, a common enough informal arrangement in a competitive market. What made this case different is that the agreement wasn't just spoken, it was confirmed in an email sent from the agent's own registered email address on March 31, 2025, weeks before the agreement for sale was signed on April 17, 2025. Once the deal closed, according to the buyer's complaint, the agent stopped responding to calls and follow-ups entirely, never paying the promised amount.
Related: Maharashtra Wants to Cap How Much Builders Can Collect Before Your Flat Is Registered
The agent didn't file any reply to the complaint despite MahaRERA giving him multiple opportunities to respond, so the authority decided the matter ex parte. Critically, MahaRERA noted the agent never denied sending the March 31 email, and never produced any evidence that he'd actually paid the promised 1%. In a regulatory proceeding, silence in the face of documented evidence tends to work against the party staying silent, and that's exactly what happened here.
In its order dated August 5, 2026, MahaRERA leaned on Section 10(c) of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016, which bars registered agents from unfair trade practices or misleading representations about the services they offer. The authority's own words were direct: "the respondent's conduct amounts to a misleading representation and an unfair trade practice within the meaning of Section 10(c) of the RERA." As a registered agent, MahaRERA held, he was required to act fairly and transparently and to honour the written commitment he made while facilitating the sale.
MahaRERA directed the agent to pay the buyer an amount equal to 1% of the total sale consideration mentioned in the registered agreement for sale, excluding GST, stamp duty, registration and other statutory charges, within 30 days. Miss that deadline, and the order warns of further penal action under Section 65 of RERA, the same enforcement provision that's backed other compensation orders we've tracked this year.
Mumbai-based advocate and solicitor Trupti Daphtary told Hindustan Times, "An interesting order which highlights that a registered real estate agent is bound by the commitments made in writing while facilitating a transaction. MahaRERA has treated the failure to honour a written commitment to share commission with the homebuyer as a misleading representation and unfair trade practice under RERA." That distinction matters, brokerage-sharing promises have historically lived in a grey zone, treated as informal courtesy rather than an enforceable obligation. This order changes that calculus for any agent who puts a commitment like this in writing.
This is a genuinely useful precedent to keep in mind, and Hommea would point out that it cuts both ways for buyers, a verbal promise from an agent carries essentially no weight if it ever needs enforcing, but a written one, even something as simple as an email, now has real regulatory teeth behind it.
Anyone negotiating a brokerage-sharing arrangement with an agent should insist on getting it in writing rather than relying on a handshake, since this order shows exactly what that documentation is actually worth when a dispute lands in front of the regulator.
