A registration lapses on a date, not at an event. The completion date the promoter last filed passes without the project being finished or extended, and its MahaRERA page starts to read Lapsed. The page gives no date for the change and says nothing about what happens next. RERA has no category called an abandoned project. What it has is a lapsed registration, a revoked one, and section 8, a short provision about who finishes the work when the promoter has not. For buyers left in a half-built layout, it is the section that matters most.
Key takeaways
- Section 8 of the RERA Act lets the Authority, on the lapse or revocation of a registration, consult the appropriate Government and have the remaining works carried out by the competent authority, by the association of allottees or in any other manner it decides.
- Only on revocation does the association of allottees get the first right of refusal, and revocation is rare: 81 of 56,068 published MahaRERA registrations read Revoked against 13,932 Lapsed, per ReraGenie's analysis as updated on 3 October 2026.
- In Maharashtra, MahaRERA has asked since 2019 for the consent of at least 51 percent of allottees before extending beyond the first year, and since December 2022 also weighs a promoter's reasons where that consent could not be had, so a registered association's collective view carries weight either way.
- No section 8 direction takes effect until the appeal period has expired, and on 5 August 2026 the Appellate Tribunal allowed MahaRERA to decide afresh the complaints behind its February 2026 order letting homebuyers finish a township near Taloja.
Suresh and Kavita's layout
Suresh and Kavita (illustrative, as our stories always are) live in the Pune retirement flat they bought for Rs 95 lakh without a loan, in Suresh's sole name. Their tower received its occupancy certificate and they moved in. The same MahaRERA registration also covers two more towers, the clubhouse and the internal road that serves the whole layout, and work on those slowed and then stopped. Names and numbers in this story are illustrative.
Kavita, a retired bank officer, and Suresh had already helped turn a WhatsApp group of the unfinished towers' buyers and their own tower's residents into a registered association of allottees, as described in forming a buyers' association. Then the registration's extended completion date passed, and the page read Lapsed. The question in the group that evening was the obvious one: who finishes it now?
What the law actually says
Section 8 of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 applies on two events: the lapse of a registration and its revocation. On either, the Authority may consult the appropriate Government and take such action as it thinks fit, including having the remaining development works carried out by the competent authority, by the association of allottees, or in any other manner it decides. Two provisos follow. No direction, decision or order under the section takes effect until the period for appeal under the Act has expired. And where the registration was revoked, the association of allottees has the first right of refusal for the remaining works.
Section 7 is where revocation comes from. Its grounds include a default under the Act, rules or regulations, a breach of the terms of the competent authority's approvals, and unfair practices or irregularities. Section 7(3) offers an alternative: instead of revoking, the Authority may keep the registration in force on further terms and conditions it imposes in the allottees' interest. If it does revoke, section 7(4) requires it to debar the promoter from accessing its website for that project and list it as a defaulter, to facilitate the remaining works under section 8, and to have the bank freeze the project account.
That is the line an association most needs to see: on a lapse, completion by the allottees is one option the Authority may choose; on a revocation, the association is offered the work before anyone else.
- 1
1. Lapse
The last filed completion date passes without completion or an extension. MahaRERA shows the status as Lapsed, with no lapse date.
- 2
2. The promoter's way back
Further time is granted under section 7(3). MahaRERA asks for the consent of at least 51 percent of allottees or, under Order 40/2022, the promoter's reasons where it could not be had.
- 3
3. Revocation
If MahaRERA revokes the registration under section 7, it lists the promoter as a defaulter, has the project account frozen and must facilitate the remaining works.
- 4
4. Consultation
The Authority may consult the appropriate Government and decide how the remaining works are finished: by the competent authority, by the association of allottees or in any other manner it determines.
- 5
5. The appeal window
No section 8 direction takes effect until the period for appeal has expired.
- 6
6. Completion by the allottees
On revocation, the association has the first right of refusal. On a lapse, it is one option among several.
Source: RERA Act, 2016, sections 7 and 8; MahaRERA Order No. 40/2022 and Circular No. 28A/2021
The four paths, compared
From a lapse, a project can move down four paths, and each needs something different from its buyers.
A further extension. Beyond the year section 6 allows, MahaRERA grants further time under section 7(3), and since 2019 it has asked for the written consent of at least 51 percent of the project's allottees, in the format of Circular No. 28A/2021. Order No. 40/2022 of 27 December 2022 lets a promoter apply with the consents it has and its reasons why the rest could not be had, and Order No. 40A/2023 of 15 May 2023 added documents it must file. Where an association speaks for most of the allottees, its consent, or its written objection, is the strongest thing on that file, as reading an extension record explains.
An extension consent is a vote, not a form to return by the weekend. Before any member signs, the association should agree what it wants in return: a dated schedule for the unfinished works, a funding plan and regular progress reports. Section 7(3) lets MahaRERA impose terms in the allottees' interest, and the association's written conditions are the obvious ones to ask for.
A new developer. Under section 15, a promoter needs the written consent of two-thirds of the allottees and MahaRERA's written approval to hand the project on; the section 15 guide sets out what the newcomer inherits. Section 8 is a second route, since MahaRERA may have the remaining work done by another developer.
Insolvency is the last resort: allottees acting jointly can apply to the National Company Law Tribunal under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code. The NCLT playbook covers the thresholds and what admission does to a RERA order.
| Path | Who moves it | What it needs | Where the association stands |
|---|---|---|---|
| A further extension | The promoter, under section 7(3) | Consent of at least 51 percent of allottees, or reasons why it could not be had, and MahaRERA's approval on its terms | Holds most of the consents the promoter is asked for; can ask for conditions first |
| A new developer | The promoter under section 15, or MahaRERA under section 8 | Under section 15, two-thirds of the allottees in writing and MahaRERA's approval | A vote on any transfer, best cast after reading the newcomer's record |
| Completion by the allottees | MahaRERA, after consulting the appropriate Government | A section 8 direction that survives the appeal period, and money to build | One option on a lapse; first right of refusal on a revocation |
| Insolvency | Allottees filing jointly, or another creditor, at the NCLT | An application meeting the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code's minimum numbers | A seat among the creditors, not control of the outcome |
Every path meets the same question: who pays for the rest of the building? The government-backed SWAMIH fund lends last-mile money to stalled RERA-registered projects that pass a net-worth test: the money still due on flats already sold, plus the value of the unsold stock, must exceed the cost of finishing and of servicing the fund. In the Union Budget of 1 February 2025, the government announced a second SWAMIH fund of Rs 15,000 crore, aimed at completing 1 lakh more stalled homes. An association's members hold half that arithmetic, because they know what they still owe.
An analogy: the school bus that stopped halfway
Think of a school bus route run by a private operator under a permit. If the permit simply runs out mid-term, the transport office decides what happens: renew it on conditions, give the route to another operator, or let the parents run it. If the office cancels the permit for misconduct, the parents' committee is offered the route first. Either way, the office deals with a committee, and a committee that does not exist cannot be offered anything. In section 8, lapse is the permit running out, revocation is the cancellation, and the association of allottees is the committee.
Section 8 in Maharashtra: the township near Taloja
A township of nine 34-storey towers near Taloja, in Raigad district, shows how this works in practice. Registered with MahaRERA as nine separate projects, it holds roughly 1,700 to 1,820 flats, and its allottees filed 154 connected complaints, according to 2026 reports of the case by The Realty Today and LiveLaw. Bookings began around 2010, and sixteen years on it was unfinished. A special conciliation panel reported on 5 January 2026 that conciliation had failed, and in an order reported in early February 2026, MahaRERA revoked the registration, declared the project stressed, barred the developer from fresh sales, marketing or creating third-party rights, and gave the homebuyers' association and the housing society the right to complete the remaining development.
On 5 August 2026, the Maharashtra Real Estate Appellate Tribunal held that once conciliation has failed, the panel's report cannot be the basis for deciding the complaints. It partly allowed the developer's stay applications and allowed MahaRERA to decide the complaints afresh on their merits. The lesson for an association is the sequence: a section 8 direction can be appealed, and an appeal can send it back. The MREAT guide explains how appeals run.
What the register shows
Of 56,068 published MahaRERA registrations, 13,932 (24.8 percent) read Lapsed and 81 read Revoked, according to ReraGenie's analysis of published MahaRERA registrations, as updated on 3 October 2026. For every revocation, the event that gives an association its first right of refusal, there are about 172 lapses, where it has none.
Source: ReraGenie analysis of published MahaRERA registrations, as updated on 3 October 2026; 56,068 registrations, status as filed
A Lapsed status is not the same as an abandoned building: many lapsed projects were built and never closed on the register, as the status decoder explains. Age matters too. The status covers 29 percent of the registrations made in 2017 and 40 percent of 2020's, but 20 percent of 2023's and 7 percent of 2024's, which have had less time to run past their dates. Reading the lapsed lists maps where they cluster.
MahaRERA files no lapse date, only the status, so the register cannot say how long a project has been lapsed. To learn the day a status changes, you have to be watching: a project watch on ReraGenie, Rs 299 for 90 days, emails you when that one project's filing changes.
What to do this week
- Read the record. On the project's MahaRERA page and its free ReraGenie project page, note the last filed completion date, each extension with the promoter's stated reason, and construction progress by building.
- Count the association against the allottee list. The figures that matter are 51 percent, the consent MahaRERA asks for on an extension, and two-thirds for a transfer, counted across the whole registration, finished towers included.
- Ask the promoter in writing what it intends: an extension with a dated schedule and a funding plan, a transfer to a named developer, or nothing. Write as the association, and keep the reply.
- Prepare to go to MahaRERA. Near Taloja, the road to a section 8 order began with allottees' complaints. Coordinated complaints, with one chronology and one set of documents, can ask MahaRERA to use its powers under sections 7 and 8; how to file a MahaRERA complaint covers the mechanics.
- Keep individual claims alive. Section 8 is about finishing the works. What the promoter owes each buyer for the delay is a separate claim, worked through in the delayed possession guide.
What the association did next
The association counted first. The households in Suresh and Kavita's tower are allottees of the same registration, so their signatures count towards 51 percent and two-thirds as much as anyone's in the unfinished towers, and the clubhouse and the road are theirs too. It then wrote to the promoter asking whether it would seek more time and on what schedule, and asked members to sign nothing until the answer came.
That is where the matter stands. If no reply arrives within the month the letter allowed, the next step is the coordinated complaints. Which path the project then takes is not the association's decision. What it has secured is that MahaRERA will be dealing with one body that has counted its votes.
What the filings add
Most of an association's case file is already public: the free project page carries the full filing, the possession timeline, every extension with its stated reason, construction progress by building, declared charges where filed, and every filed document. The Rs 499 ReraGenie buyer report adds three things that bear on this decision:
- The promoter's other registrations and how they ended, worth reading before members consent to more time.
- Sanctions, units and sales building by building, the start of any count against the 51 percent and two-thirds thresholds, and of the unsold stock a last-mile lender looks at. Unit counts are filed on only about 38 percent of projects.
- Whether the land is mortgaged, one of its five land and title questions, and among the first things an incoming developer or fund will ask.
It also includes the project's filed documents as a ZIP. See what the buyer report covers.
The one-line summary
RERA has no abandoned project, only a lapsed or revoked registration: a lapse leaves the promoter a way back that MahaRERA ties to the buyers' consent, a revocation gives their association first refusal on the remaining work, and either way MahaRERA decides, so the association has to exist, and count its votes, first.
Methodology and sources
- Register: ReraGenie analysis of published MahaRERA registrations, as updated on 3 October 2026. Lapsed by registration year: 2017, 4,311 of 14,736; 2020, 1,624 of 4,039; 2023, 1,147 of 5,784; 2024, 312 of 4,547. Status as filed; MahaRERA records no lapse date.
- Law: RERA Act, 2016, sections 7, 8 and 15; MahaRERA Orders No. 40/2022 and 40A/2023, and Circular No. 28A/2021.
- Taloja township: Re-mumbai (6 February 2026) and The Realty Today on MahaRERA's order; LiveLaw on the Appellate Tribunal's ruling of 5 August 2026.
- SWAMIH: the fund's eligibility criteria; the Union Budget of 1 February 2025.
This article is educational and not legal advice. For a dispute, consult a lawyer who practices before your state's RERA.
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