Before you pay the next instalment: checking a builder demand letter against the site

A builder demand letter is usually two short paragraphs and one large number: a stage of construction is complete, so an instalment is due by the date it names. It is easy to pay it like a utility bill, on trust. On a construction-linked plan that trust carries weight, because each instalment is meant to buy a stage that already exists, and money paid ahead of the building is the money most exposed when a project stops. Projects do stop: in 2021 ANAROCK counted about 6.29 lakh homes worth Rs 5.05 lakh crore stalled or badly delayed across the top seven cities it tracks, 50,130 of them in Pune. The paperwork takes half an hour, from anywhere.

What you need before you start#

Your agreement's payment schedule, the demand letter, the project's filing on MahaRERA or ReraGenie's free project page, your sanction letter if a loan funds the instalment, and someone who can photograph the site. Allow thirty minutes, plus a few days for the bank.

The check, step by step#

1. Match the letter to your schedule#

Find the schedule line the letter refers to. It should name the same stage for your building or wing, at that line's percentage of the agreement value, with GST shown separately: 5 percent, or 1 percent for a home that meets the affordable housing tests.

Then add up everything paid, including this demand, and compare it with the ceiling for the stage claimed. Maharashtra's model agreement for sale, prescribed under Rule 10 of the state's RERA rules, ties each instalment to a stage and caps the running total at each one. The first row's 10 percent cap is explained in the money timeline.

Ceilings are from Annexure A to the Maharashtra RERA Rules, 2017; filing rows as MahaRERA's progress form names them. Many agreements split the slab stage into an instalment per slab or group of slabs, and the last row brings its own charges.

Red flags: a stage your schedule lacks, two stages billed when the building has reached one, a slab demand taking the total past 70 percent, or an unfamiliar account.

2. Read the architect's certificate#

Section 4(2)(l)(D) of the RERA Act keeps 70 percent of buyers' money in a separate account, withdrawable only once an engineer, an architect and a chartered accountant certify that the withdrawal is in proportion to the work completed. Their certificates are uploaded with the project's documents, the architect's as the Architect's Certificate of Percentage of Completion of Work (Form 1), and reading Form 1, 2 and 3 covers all three. Read the newest Form 1's date, wing and certified completion. It is often older than the stage being billed.

The forms are tied to withdrawals, so an old date is a question rather than a finding. But a spring certificate cannot vouch for a September slab: ask the builder for this stage's certificate, which your bank will want anyway.

ReraGenie's free page for every MahaRERA project lists the filed documents newest first, with upload dates, and shows construction progress building by building, so this check and the next take minutes: find your project.

Red flags: a certificate for another wing, a percentage below the stage, an architect other than the one named in the filing, or a builder unwilling to share what the bank will see.

3. Read your building's row in the filing#

In the project's filing, find construction progress for your building and wing. MahaRERA's form lists eleven activities for every building, and from the plinth onwards they follow the model stages almost word for word. For a whole stage, its row should read at or near 100 percent; for a single slab, roughly the share of slabs the letter implies, such as 60 percent for the 12th of 20.

Check the filing's date first. Section 11(1) of the RERA Act requires quarterly updates of the project's status and bookings, and MahaRERA wants each within 20 days of the quarter's end, as the QPR due-dates guide sets out. A slab cast in August appears only in the update due on 20 October, so a filing that trails the letter is normal. One that contradicts it is not.

Discipline has improved without becoming universal. MahaRERA said in February 2025 that the share of builders updating project details had risen from 0.02 percent in January 2023 to 62 percent, yet 8,212 projects missed the 20 April 2026 deadline and were given 60 days to comply or face penalties, frozen accounts and curbs on sales and registrations.

Red flags: the row short of the stage, the same figure two updates running, or no update by the 20th.

4. Let the bank's check run#

Lenders release each tranche of an under-construction loan against the builder's demand letter and an architect's certificate for the stage, and may inspect the site first, as the under-construction home loan guide explains. Ask what the bank found.

Red flag: a bank holding back a tranche, or asking the builder for more, has seen something you should hear about.

5. Get eyes on the site#

A dated photograph from the road settles what no document can: count the slabs cast and look for shuttering on the floor above.

Red flags: fewer slabs than the letter implies, or an idle site in a month the letter says moved.

6. Pay it, and keep the paper#

Pay only into the account named in your agreement, by a traceable method, and file the receipt with the letter and certificate. Where the price is Rs 50 lakh or more, deduct 1 percent TDS from each instalment under section 393(1) of the Income-tax Act, 2025, formerly section 194-IA, as the TDS walkthrough explains.

Red flag: a request for cash, or for payment into any other account.

When the letter and the site disagree#

Non-payment by the due date is a default under the agreement, so the order of moves matters.

1. Write before the due date, naming the stage you cannot confirm and asking for its certificate.
2. Pay what you can verify on time, such as an earlier stage billed in the same letter, saying in writing what the payment covers.
3. Pay the balance the day the evidence arrives.
4. If the evidence contradicts the letter, escalate to MahaRERA's conciliation forum or a complaint, still paying every stage you can verify.

Late payment carries prescribed interest: Rule 18 of the Maharashtra RERA rules sets 2 percent above SBI's highest marginal cost of lending rate, and section 2(za) of the Act makes a defaulting buyer's rate equal to the promoter's own, from the due date until payment. The delay interest calculation has the current figure.

Nor does one queried instalment cancel a booking. The model agreement lets the promoter terminate for non-payment only after three defaults, and only after a written notice of its intention that leaves the buyer the notice period to put the breach right; the money paid then comes back, after adjustment, within 30 days of termination. If a builder skips those steps, read your builder terminated your booking.

An analogy: the bill and the meter#

A demand letter is a bill, the architect's certificate is the meter reading behind it, the quarterly filing is the meter read on schedule, and the photograph is you looking at the meter. Nobody contests an electricity bill by refusing all of it: they pay what they agree with and ask for the reading.

Rohit checks a slab from abroad#

Rohit (illustrative, as our stories always are) is buying a construction-linked flat in Pune from abroad. His builder's demand letter arrived by email late one evening, his time: the 12th slab of his wing was cast, and its instalment was due within two weeks. Names and numbers in this story are illustrative.

The schedule matched and the running total sat well under 70 percent. The snag was the record: the newest Form 1 dated from May, and the latest quarterly update, covering April to June, showed his wing's slab row at 45 percent, the ninth of 20 slabs. The filing did not contradict the letter. It was three months behind it.

So he asked for the 12th slab's architect's certificate, which arrived two days later, signed by the architect named in the filing. His bank's engineer visited before releasing the tranche and found the slab cast, and a friend in Pune photographed the tower that Sunday: twelve slabs, shuttering rising for the thirteenth. Rohit authorised the disbursement, paid the GST from his NRE account as the NRI playbook describes, and deposited his TDS. The demand was right, and the check took six days.

What the buyer report adds#

The checks tell you whether this stage is done. ReraGenie's Rs 499 buyer report reads how the project got there: its construction pace against the district's; sanctions, units and sales building by building, showing how much of your own building is sold; and the possession story, first promised date against the current one, each fact with its filing date. It includes the filed documents as a ZIP and a free 90-day project watch that emails you when the filing changes. See what the buyer report covers.

The checklist#

• The stage and amount match a line of your schedule, with GST shown separately.
• The running total is within the model ceiling.
• The newest Form 1 covers the stage, or you have asked for one that does.
• The latest progress update supports the stage, or trails it only as the calendar explains.
• The bank has checked the stage, and a dated photograph agrees.
• You pay into the named account and deduct TDS where the price is Rs 50 lakh or more.
• Any doubt went to the builder in writing before the due date, with the verified part paid.

The one-line summary#

A builder demand letter is due when its stage is done: match it to the schedule, read the architect's certificate, check your building's row, let the bank look, get a dated photograph, and pay what you can verify on time, into the named account. Choosing a construction-linked plan is what made the check possible.

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