Cancellations used to end in a peculiar hostage situation: the buyer wanted out, the builder wanted the unit back to resell, and the registered agreement sat between them because one side would not sign the cancellation deed. Money and flat both stayed frozen, sometimes for years. In November 2025, MahaRERA broke the deadlock with a procedure blessed weeks earlier by the Bombay High Court. If you are cancelling, or being cancelled on, here is the new map.
Key takeaways
- Circular 50/2025 (18 November 2025) created an SOP: after a concluded adjudication, MahaRERA can appoint an officer to execute and register a pending cancellation deed, or agreement, on behalf of the non-cooperating party.
- Buyer-initiated cancellations: deductions limited to a small slice, commonly around 2 percent per MahaRERA orders, with refunds ordinarily processed within about 45 days of the written request.
- Builder-fault exits are different law entirely: Section 18 full refund with interest, no deduction.
- The circular removes procedural hostage-taking in both directions; the merits of any termination remain fully contestable.
The problem the circular solved
A registered agreement for sale is a registered interest in the flat: it does not dissolve by email. Unwinding it needs a registered deed of cancellation, and registration needs both signatures. That bilateral requirement became a weapon on both sides: buyers in default refusing to sign so the unit stayed blocked, promoters refusing to sign, or to refund, while quietly remarketing the unit. The Bombay High Court's October 2025 ruling settled the jurisdiction question: cancellation cannot be unilateral, but MahaRERA may appoint a fit and proper person to sign on behalf of a party defaulting on a concluded adjudication. Circular 50/2025 turned that into standing procedure.
An analogy: a joint locker needs two keys, and for years either holder could freeze the locker by pocketing theirs. The circular gives the regulator a master key, usable only after a hearing has already decided who the locker's contents belong to. The key does not decide the dispute; it stops the loser from jamming the lock.
Cancelling as a buyer: the two doors
Door one: the builder is at fault. Delay past the promised date, misrepresentation, plan changes without consent. This is not a "cancellation" in the circular's sense; it is a Section 18 exit: full refund, prescribed interest from payment dates, no deduction, enforced through a complaint if not offered. Never let a sales office reframe your Section 18 exit as a voluntary cancellation with deductions.
Door two: you are leaving for your own reasons. Job change, finances, a better option. Here the forfeiture question governs, and Maharashtra's adjudication record has been consistently buyer-protective: deductions on voluntary cancellations limited to a small slice of consideration, commonly around 2 percent, not the 10 percent booking amount older forms claimed. The working refund standard is processing within about 45 days of your written request.
- 1
Cancel in writing, once and clearly
Dated letter or email to the promoter entity: unit, agreement details, the request, and your account for the refund.
- 2
Quote the deduction reality
Cite MahaRERA's position limiting deductions on buyer-initiated cancellations, and ask for the computation in writing.
- 3
Sign the deed against the cheque
The deed of cancellation and the refund are exchanged, not sequenced on trust; registration of the deed is the promoter's interest as much as yours.
- 4
Escalate a stonewall
Refund silence past the working window, or a promoter reselling while withholding your money, goes to MahaRERA; post-adjudication non-cooperation now meets the appointed-officer SOP.
Source: MahaRERA Circular 50/2025 and cancellation-deduction orders; Bombay High Court, October 2025
If you are the one refusing to sign
Read the fine print of the new regime honestly: it cuts both ways. A buyer who lost on merits, terminated for genuine payment default after due process, can no longer freeze the unit by withholding a signature; the appointed officer will sign in their place, and the adjudicated refund terms are what they get. The circular explicitly does not touch your right to contest the termination itself, on merits, up the appellate ladder. What ended is the stalemate strategy, in both hands.
Watch the paperwork trap in reverse: some promoters now push buyers to sign broad "consent terms" at booking that pre-authorise cancellation on soft defaults. The circular's officer acts only on a concluded adjudication, not on a form you signed at the sales office. Read cancellation clauses in the agreement against the model agreement's balance before signing anything.
Neha (illustrative, as ever) cancelled a first booking when her Mulund redevelopment plans changed: written request, deduction computation demanded, deed exchanged against the cheque in five weeks, roughly 2 percent lighter and otherwise whole. Her colleague's 2023 cancellation, same builder, had taken nineteen months of the old hostage game. The difference was one circular and one High Court ruling.
Whether you are entering or exiting, the promoter's cancellation behaviour is on the record: complaint orders, refund disputes, resale patterns. The Rs 499 ReraGenie buyer report surfaces that history for any covered Maharashtra project before you book, which is the cheapest time to learn how a builder treats people on the way out. Sign up on ReraGenie.
The one-line summary
Builder at fault means Section 18 and every rupee back with interest; your own exit means a small deduction, a 45-day refund clock and a deed exchanged against the cheque, and since November 2025, nobody on either side gets to win by refusing to sign. Promoters running the other side of this process have their own workflow to rebuild: Circular 50/2025 for promoters.
This article is educational and not legal advice. For a dispute, consult a lawyer who practices before MahaRERA.
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