A Developer's Obligations Under MahaRERA

Under MahaRERA — the Maharashtra wing of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 (RERA) — your developer is legally called the promoter and carries a fixed list of duties towards buyers and society members. In short, the promoter must register the project before advertising or selling it (Section 3), keep 70% of the money collected from buyers in a separate project bank account and draw it only against certified construction progress (Section 4(2)(l)(D)), upload quarterly progress and financial updates to the MahaRERA website, build strictly to the sanctioned plan and not change it without two-thirds consent (Section 14), fix structural defects for five years after handover (Section 14(3)), and deliver on time or pay the price of delay (Section 18). These duties carry penalties, and they replaced the far weaker protections that existed under the older Maharashtra Ownership Flats Act, 1963 (MOFA). This guide explains each one in everyday language, with worked examples and a checklist your committee can act on.

Who is a "promoter", and does your redevelopment fall under MahaRERA?

In everyday speech you say "the developer" or "the builder". RERA uses one word — promoter — for the person or company that constructs and sells a project. In a redevelopment, that is your appointed developer. Existing members are treated as allottees for the new rehabilitation flats they receive, and outside buyers of the extra "sale" flats are allottees too. Importantly, MahaRERA has held that a society carrying out redevelopment can itself be a promoter or co-promoter. This matters most in self-redevelopment, or where the society signs on as a co-promoter alongside a builder, because the promoter's duties then also touch the society.

The registration threshold

Registration is not optional for most projects. Under Section 3 a promoter cannot advertise, market, book or sell without a MahaRERA registration number. Section 3(2) exempts only very small projects — where the land is up to 500 square metres or the project has up to eight apartments. Most society redevelopments comfortably cross this line and therefore must be registered.

If you want the bigger picture of how the whole Act maps onto redevelopment, see our note on RERA for redevelopment.

Obligation 1 — Register before selling or advertising (Section 3)

The most basic duty is registration. When a developer registers a project, they must upload key documents to the public MahaRERA portal — the sanctioned plan, the layout, the land-title details, the declared completion date, and the names of the architect, engineer and contractor. Until a registration number is issued, not a single flat may be booked or advertised.

For a society, this is powerful. It converts "possession in three years" from a spoken assurance into a dated, declared commitment on a government website that you can point back to later. Before you sign anything, confirm the project is registered and that its declared completion date matches what the developer told your general body. Lining that up against the commercial terms is easier with our offer comparison tool.

Obligation 2 — Keep 70% of buyers' money in a separate account (Section 4(2)(l)(D))

One of RERA's biggest changes is how money is handled. Section 4(2)(l)(D) requires the promoter to deposit 70% of the amounts collected from allottees into a separate account in a scheduled bank, maintained only for that project. This "ring-fences" the money so funds collected for your building cannot be spent on a different one.

That 70% can be withdrawn only to cover the cost of construction and land for the same project, and only in proportion to how much work is actually completed. In practice this is policed by professionals: an engineer, an architect and a chartered accountant must certify the stage of completion before each drawdown. On top of that, the promoter's project accounts must be audited by a chartered accountant every year, within six months of the end of each financial year, to confirm the withdrawals matched the progress.

Worked example: how the 70% rule protects your society

Suppose the developer has collected Rs 100 crore from sale-flat buyers. At least Rs 70 crore must sit in the separate project account. If the building is 40% complete on certified measurement, the developer can draw down only up to about that proportion of the ring-fenced funds — not the whole Rs 70 crore up front. So money follows genuine progress, rather than the developer collecting heavily and then stalling. For your society, that materially lowers the risk of a builder running out of cash halfway through.

Obligation 3 — Upload quarterly progress and financial updates

Transparency is a continuing duty, not a one-time filing. A registered promoter must keep the project page on the MahaRERA website current, with quarterly updates showing how far construction has reached, the flats booked, approvals received and the financial position of the project.

For members, this is a free monitoring tool. You do not have to rely only on what the developer tells the committee in a meeting — you can open the official project page and read the declared progress yourself, quarter by quarter. If what you see on site does not match what is uploaded, that gap is worth raising in writing, early.

Obligation 4 — Build to the sanctioned plan; no changes without two-thirds consent (Section 14)

Section 14 requires the promoter to construct the project in line with the sanctioned plans and specifications that were disclosed. The developer cannot quietly shrink your flat, change the layout, alter common amenities or add extra floors as they please. Minor internal adjustments required by law may be allowed, but the Act bars any alteration of the sanctioned plans or the common areas without the consent of at least two-thirds of the allottees.

This directly protects the carpet area and amenities your society negotiated. Indian courts and MahaRERA have repeatedly held that altering approved plans without proper consent is not permitted; you can read our summary of a ruling that changing sanctioned plans needs consent. Make sure your development agreement mirrors this protection instead of giving the builder a free hand — a common trap covered in our red flags in a development agreement guide.

Obligation 5 — Fix structural defects for five years (Section 14(3))

The promoter's responsibility does not end at handover. Under Section 14(3), if any structural defect — or a defect in workmanship, quality or the provision of services — is brought to the promoter's notice within five years of possession, the promoter must rectify it at no extra cost within a short window of being notified. If the developer fails to do so, the affected allottees are entitled to appropriate compensation.

This is why finishing, waterproofing and structural quality matter so much, and why the defect-liability clause in your agreement must not be watered down below the five-year legal floor. Courts and consumer forums have ordered builders to repair or pay for defects; see our overview of defect-liability court orders for how members have enforced this in practice.

Obligation 6 — Deliver on time, or pay: delay remedies (Section 18)

RERA's strongest protection for buyers is against delay. Under Section 18, if the promoter fails to hand over possession by the date declared to MahaRERA, an allottee has a choice: withdraw from the project and claim a full refund of the money paid, together with interest, or stay in the project and claim interest for every month of delay until possession is given. This shifts the cost of delay onto the developer instead of the members.

Worked example: what delay interest can look like

Imagine your society's rehabilitation building was promised by a declared date, but handover slips by a year, and the transit rent the developer was paying also stops. A member who chose to stay in the project can claim interest for each month of delay on the amounts they are treated as having paid, in addition to the corpus and rent commitments in the agreement. Because the exact interest rate and computation depend on MahaRERA's prescribed formula and your specific numbers, treat this as an illustration of the principle, not a fixed figure. If your project is already late, our guide on what to do when a builder delays walks through the practical steps, and a badly stalled project may justify terminating a non-performing developer.

The developer's core MahaRERA duties at a glance

How to check a project's registration and file a complaint

You do not need a lawyer for the first checks. On the official MahaRERA website there is a public project search where you can look up a registered project by its name, the promoter's name or the registration number. Once a project page opens, you can see the declared completion date, the sanctioned plans, the professionals involved and the uploaded quarterly progress.

A quick verification routine for your committee

• Search the developer's proposed project and confirm the registration number is valid and current, not lapsed.
• Check the declared completion date matches the timeline in your draft agreement.
• Compare the sanctioned plan and flat areas online with what the developer has shown your members.
• Each quarter, open the project page and compare declared progress with what you see on site.
• Look at the promoter's track record — under the 79A directive, a shortlisted developer must already have at least one MahaRERA-registered project.

If the promoter breaks an obligation — misses possession, changes plans without consent, or refuses to fix defects — an aggrieved allottee or the society can file a complaint with MahaRERA online, on payment of the prescribed fee. MahaRERA can then order the promoter to comply, refund money, or pay interest and compensation. Keeping paperwork organised makes any complaint far stronger; our free downloads and the how to choose a developer guide help your committee stay prepared from day one.

What this means for your society, in practice

Read together, these obligations give ordinary members a level of protection that simply did not exist under MOFA. The registration duty makes the timeline public; the 70% account keeps the money honest; the quarterly updates let you monitor without a fight; Section 14 protects the area and amenities you bargained for; Section 14(3) keeps the builder on the hook for defects; and Section 18 makes delay expensive for the developer, not just painful for you.

The practical lesson is to use these rules before you sign, not only after something goes wrong. Insist the development agreement restates the five-year defect liability, the sanctioned-plan lock, and the completion date, and that each member's Permanent Alternate Accommodation Agreement (PAAA) is registered. If your society is also stepping in as a co-promoter, remember the promoter's duties may then attach to the society too — a reason to plan the structure carefully and read our possession and corpus guide alongside this one.

Where to find the official rule

The parent law is the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016, passed by the Government of India, along with the Maharashtra rules made under it. The regulator for our state is MahaRERA, and its official website carries the project search, the promoter and agent registration system, the online complaint facility, and the circulars and orders it issues from time to time. Because thresholds, timelines and procedures are refined periodically through MahaRERA circulars, always confirm the current position on the official MahaRERA portal or the text of the Act rather than relying on older summaries — several procedural details have been clarified and tightened since 2017. For anything specific to your plot's building potential, use our FSI calculator rather than a general figure.