Ask three buyers what an occupancy certificate proves and you will get three answers. The regulations are unusually clear about it, and about the two documents people confuse it with.
Key takeaways
- The completion certificate comes from the developer's own architect or engineer, the one who supervised the construction.
- The occupancy certificate comes from the Authority, after it inspects and satisfies itself there is no deviation from the sanctioned plans.
- The Authority has 21 days. If it neither issues nor refuses, the work is deemed approved for occupation, but only if the construction conforms to the sanctioned plans.
- A part occupancy certificate is available before the whole project is finished, subject to the owner indemnifying the Authority. That indemnity protects the Authority.
- Work done in contravention of the sanctioned plans without prior approval is deemed unauthorised, though internal changes within a unit that do not violate FSI are not.
- Only about 10 percent of plinth certified cases are inspected by each empowered officer.
Before any of it: the board at the gate
Chapter 2, Regulation 2.8.3, UDCPR as updated 30 January 2025* is the earliest document a buyer can read, and it is standing in the open.
As soon as the development or building permission is obtained, the owner or developer shall install a display board in a conspicuous place on site showing:
- Name and address of the owner, the developer and all concerned licensed persons
- Survey number or city survey number of the land
- Order number and date of the permission granted by the Authority
- Built up area permitted
- RERA registration number
- A software QR code for the project, generated in the online building permission
That board is a legal disclosure, not signage. It names the professionals, gives you the permission's own reference number, and states the permitted built up area, which is the figure everything else is measured against.
An individual plot holder building their own house is exempt. A project is not. If the board is missing, faded past reading or shows no RERA number, that is worth noting before anything else, because everything below depends on documents this board tells you how to ask for.
During construction: two checkpoints
Chapter 2, Regulation 2.8.4, Plinth Checking requires the owner to give intimation to the Authority, in the prescribed form, after the work reaches plinth level, certified by the architect, licensed engineer or supervisor to confirm the work is being carried out in accordance with the sanctioned plans. Only after that intimation may construction proceed further.
Then the sentence that tells you how much checking actually happens: the officers empowered to grant development permission, and their subordinates, shall each inspect about 10 percent of such plinth certified cases.
Chapter 2, Regulation 2.8.5, Deviation during Construction covers changes. Any deviation of a substantial nature from the sanctioned plans, internal or external, needs the Authority's sanction, on a revised plan following the same procedure as the original. And then the consequence: any work done in contravention of the sanctioned plans, without prior approval, shall be deemed unauthorised.
There is a carve out that matters to buyers and is often misquoted. Changes made within the internal layout of a residential or commercial unit, which do not violate FSI or other regulations, shall not be treated as unauthorised, and are incorporated in the plan along with the completion certificate. Revised permission may also be granted after completion, before the full occupancy certificate is obtained.
The completion certificate is the developer's document
Chapter 2, Regulation 2.9, UDCPR as updated 30 January 2025 is precise about who writes it. The owner, through the architect, licensed engineer, town planner or supervisor who supervised the construction, furnishes a building completion certificate to the Authority in the prescribed form.
It must be accompanied by:
- Three sets of plans of the completed development
- The certificate about the operation of the lift from the consultant
- The certificate of structural stability, wherever necessary
- For special buildings, the NOC from the Chief Fire Officer of the Authority or the Director of Fire Services
Read the authorship. The completion certificate is a statement by the developer's own supervising professional that the building is finished in accordance with the plans. It is a required document and a meaningful one, because that professional's licence stands behind it, but it is not an independent verification.
A project that offers a completion certificate in answer to "do you have the OC" has answered a different question.
The occupancy certificate is the Authority's
Chapter 2, Regulation 2.10, UDCPR as updated 30 January 2025 puts the obligation on the Authority. After inspection of the work, and after satisfying itself that there is no deviation from the sanctioned plans as described in Regulation 2.8.5, the Authority issues the occupancy certificate, or refuses it, within 21 days from the date of receipt of the completion certificate.
Banded by the Authority's response
- Within 21 days, issuedOccupancy certificate granted, with one certified set of plans returned to the owner
- Within 21 days, refusedRefusal in the prescribed form, and the reasons for refusal or rejection must be given
- No response in 21 daysThe work shall be deemed to have been approved for occupation, PROVIDED the construction conforms to the sanctioned plans
- Deemed certificate requestedThe Authority shall issue the deemed occupancy certificate within 15 days of the application
Source: Chapter 2, Regulation 2.10, UDCPR as updated 30 January 2025
For special buildings there is an additional gate: the occupancy certificate is issued only after clearance from the Chief Fire Officer regarding completion of work from a fire protection point of view.
The deemed approval clause is where care is needed, because it is conditional and the condition does the work. Silence for 21 days produces a deemed approval only if the construction conforms to the sanctioned plans. It does not cure a deviation; it only removes the delay where there was nothing to cure.
So a deemed occupancy certificate is a real document with a real basis. It is not, however, evidence that anyone inspected and found the building compliant, which is precisely what a full occupancy certificate is evidence of.
The part occupancy certificate, and whose indemnity it is
Chapter 2, Regulation 2.11, UDCPR as updated 30 January 2025 allows the Authority, when requested by the holder of the development permission, to issue a part occupancy certificate for a building or part of one before completion of the entire work, provided sufficient precautionary measures are taken to ensure public safety and the health of occupants and users of that portion.
And it is subject to the owner indemnifying the Authority in the prescribed form.
That indemnity is the detail worth carrying away. It runs from the owner to the Authority. It is the Authority that is being protected against claims arising from occupation of an incomplete project, not the person moving in.
A part OC is therefore an entirely lawful document that says something narrower than it sounds: this named portion may be occupied, the rest of the site is still a construction site, and the risk allocation behind it was made between the developer and the regulator.
Names and numbers in this story are illustrative. When Priya and Arjun were offered possession on a part OC, the question that changed their decision was not whether the certificate was genuine. It was which buildings and floors it named, and what the remaining construction programme on the rest of the site looked like.
Chapter 2, Regulation 2.12, Inspection completes the picture: the Authority has power to inspect the work at various stages to ascertain whether it is proceeding as per the regulations and the sanctioned plan.
What to ask, in order
- Photograph the display board and use it to get the permission's order number, the permitted built up area and the RERA number.
- Ask whether the document offered is the completion certificate or the occupancy certificate, and who signed it.
- If it is a deemed occupancy certificate, ask what it is based on, since the deeming works only where construction conforms to the sanctioned plans.
- If it is a part occupancy certificate, ask exactly which buildings and floors it covers.
- Ask for the sanctioned plan and compare it with what is built, because a substantial deviation without prior approval is deemed unauthorised under Regulation 2.8.5.
Where the filings come in
MahaRERA's public filing is the free half of this. It records the project's registration and status, the buildings and their floors, the promoter's extension history with the reasons given, the certifying professionals, and any complaints or litigation with case numbers, all readable at reragenie.com without an account.
What it does not hold is the certificates themselves, which is why the display board and the sanctioned plan matter so much: they tell you what to ask for and from whom.
ReraGenie's buyer report, Rs 499, reads one project's full filing and the documents behind it, sets the promoter's record against the rest of the register, compares the possession slip with the median for the same pincode, and lists what the filings do not contain. It includes a project watch for 90 days, so a change in status reaches you by email.
For who carries responsibility for the structure behind those certificates, see who signed for your building.
Source: Unified Development Control and Promotion Regulations for Maharashtra, UDCPR as updated 30 January 2025. Sanctioned under the Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Act, 1966.
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