Amenities promised, amenities delivered: enforcing the brochure

The keys came in March. By the following February the building's residents had a working lift, water, electricity and a society bank account, and the podium where the brochure had shown a landscaped garden, a gym and a children's play area was still a fenced slab with a sign reading "work in progress". Nobody had said the amenities were cancelled. Nobody had said when they would come. That silence is the most common way an amenity goes missing, and it is also the most fixable.

Neha's podium#

Neha (illustrative, as our stories always are) had bought her 2BHK in a Mulund redevelopment project partly for what the sales office called "the lifestyle podium". A year after possession it was still a slab. The site office told residents it was "planned for phase two". Her question was simple: was that a promise being delayed, or a promise being quietly withdrawn, and which document would decide? Names and numbers in this story are illustrative.

What the law actually says#

Four provisions of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 do most of the work, and one MahaRERA requirement makes them usable.

Section 14(1) requires the promoter to develop and complete the project in accordance with the sanctioned plans, layout plans and specifications approved by the competent authorities. Section 14(2) bars the promoter from altering the fixtures, fittings and amenities described for your flat without your consent, and from altering the plans or specifications of the buildings or common areas without the written consent of at least two-thirds of the allottees. An amenity cannot lawfully be dropped by announcement.

Section 18(3) makes the promoter liable to pay compensation where it fails to discharge any obligation under the Act, the rules or the agreement for sale. An undelivered amenity promised in the agreement is exactly that kind of failure.

Section 12 reaches back to the brochure itself. Where you paid on the basis of information in an advertisement or prospectus, or a model flat, and suffered loss because it was false, the promoter must compensate you, and if you choose to withdraw, return your money with interest.

Section 19(3) adds the collective right: the association of allottees is entitled to claim possession of the common areas by the completion date the promoter declared at registration.

The MahaRERA requirement that makes these practical came in July 2024, in Order No. 57/2024, after a draft that April. The agreement for sale must now list, in its Annexure-I, the facilities and amenities with their delivery dates, whether each is in the building, the common areas or the layout, their size, whether they are free of FSI, and, for projects built in phases, which phase delivers them, along with the expected date of the occupation certificate. A phase-two podium is therefore not a vague future: it is a line in an annexure, with a date.

What the filings track, and what they do not#

This is where most buyers assume more than the register can give. Every registered project files quarterly progress on its common facilities, and a buyer might reasonably expect that to include the clubhouse. It almost never does. The list promoters file against is civic infrastructure.

The register tracks the drains, not the swimming pool. That is not a failure of the register: the civic items are the ones a building cannot be lived in without, and they are the works MahaRERA's standard architect's certificate lists. But it means the lifestyle amenities that sold the flat are, for most projects, recorded nowhere except the agreement and the brochure.

Two further readings of the same filings are worth knowing. Among active projects whose buildings report at least 90 percent completion, 68.6 percent still report some common facility below 100 percent, with the facilities a median 8.7 points behind the towers: amenities routinely trail the flats, which is normal as long as a date governs them. And on completed projects, 62.2 percent of those filing common facilities show at least one item below 100 percent in their last filing. Read that one carefully. A completed project stops filing progress, so the last figure may simply predate the finishing work. It is not proof an amenity is missing. It is proof the register cannot confirm it was finished, which leaves the confirmation to you.

An analogy: the hotel inspection and the booking confirmation#

A hotel's safety inspection checks the fire exits, the wiring and the water. It does not check whether the spa exists. If you booked the hotel for the spa, your evidence is the booking confirmation that promised it. The inspection and the confirmation answer different questions, and a guest who confused them would be surprised at the pool.

The quarterly filing is the inspection. Annexure-I of your agreement is the booking confirmation. Enforce the amenity from the second.

The remedy paths compared#

MahaRERA's own figures suggest the system is not the bottleneck it once was: it disposed of 6,945 complaints in 2025 against 5,073 filed that year, according to figures it released in January 2026. A complaint that quotes the annexure, the date and the promoter's written reply is the kind that moves.

What to do this week#

1. Pull the agreement and read Annexure-I. Note each missing amenity, its promised location, size, phase and delivery date.
2. Collect the promise. The brochure, the advertisement, the sample flat photographs, any sales email or message describing the amenity.
3. Write to the promoter. Quote the annexure line and ask for a dated completion commitment. Keep proof of delivery.
4. Coordinate with the other buyers. An amenity in a common area affects every flat, and a joint letter from the association carries more weight than one buyer.
5. If the date passes without a commitment, file. The steps, fees and hearing process are in how to file a MahaRERA complaint, and where the promoter is engaging but slow, the MahaRERA conciliation forum is the faster first stop.

What Neha found#

Neha's Annexure-I listed the podium garden, gym and play area in the layout's common areas, due with the second phase, and named a date that had passed four months earlier. The promoter's first reply blamed approvals for the second tower. Her second letter, joined by forty other residents, quoted the annexure date and asked for a revised schedule in writing. It came within three weeks, with the gym committed first. Not a victory, and not nothing: a promise with a new date on letterhead, which is what a complaint would need if the second date slipped too.

What the filings add#

Before booking, the question is not only which amenities are promised but whether this promoter delivers what it promises. The free project page shows the filed progress on shared facilities beside the progress of each building, so the gap between the towers and the amenities is visible before possession rather than after. For any covered Maharashtra project, the Rs 499 ReraGenie buyer report adds the promoter's record across its other registrations, the project's extension history with the reasons filed, and its complaints with case numbers, which is where a pattern of amenities arriving late, or not at all, shows up first. The general version of the brochure problem is covered in phase-wise registrations, expired numbers and other listing tricks, and the reason rainwater harvesting should never have been sold as a feature in the first place is in rainwater harvesting is not an amenity.

The one-line summary#

The register tracks the drains, not the pool, so the amenity you paid for lives in Annexure-I of your agreement: find its date, demand it in writing with your neighbours, and take a documented complaint to MahaRERA if the date passes without a new one.

This article is educational and not legal advice. For a dispute, consult a lawyer who practices before your state's RERA.