Electricity connection for a new flat: getting power, water and gas into your name after possession

The keys come with a folder, and somewhere in it is a bill that is not addressed to you. The meter in the lobby still carries the developer's name, the gas line in the kitchen ends in a capped valve, and the water arrives through a connection nobody in your family applied for. Most buyers learn how their new home is plugged in only when something needs changing, and the electricity connection for a new flat is the one buyers most often assume is already theirs. In Pune the question turned urgent in September 2026, when about four lakh households in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad whose buildings already had gas pipelines were told to move to piped gas by October or face a cut in their LPG cylinder supply, as Punekar News reported on 3 September 2026.

What you need before you start#

• The occupancy certificate, or at least its upload on the project's MahaRERA page. Nothing permanent should be expected before it.
• Your registered agreement for sale and its Index II, which are your proof of ownership for every utility.
• Identity proof for whoever's name the connections will carry.
• The possession letter and its receipts. The utility deposits you paid at possession are listed there, and the possession demand letter explains how to test each line before paying it.
• The last bill on your flat's meter, with its consumer number, if a meter already exists.
• A power of attorney that names these acts, if you will not be in India. The NRI buyer's playbook sets out how one signed abroad is made valid in Maharashtra.

Step 1: Confirm the occupancy certificate is on the file#

Action. Before planning a single application, confirm the occupancy certificate has been issued. OC vs CC explains what it certifies.

What you will see. The certificate in the project's documents on MahaRERA, with an upload date.

Red flag. An offer of keys without it.

If your flat is still being built, look the project up on ReraGenie: its free page shows whether the occupancy certificate slot holds a document and when it was uploaded, and a project watch (Rs 299 for 90 days) emails you when that project's filing changes.

Step 2: Read the utility lines in your possession letter#

Action. Maharashtra's model agreement for sale has the buyer keep deposited with the promoter, on or before possession, amounts for "water, electricity and other utility and service connection charges" and for the electrical receiving and substation facilities in the layout. These are the deposits the builder pays to the utilities for your flat. Match each figure to your agreement and ask for the utility's own demand or receipt behind it.

What you will see. A deposit line for each utility, a receipt, and a consumer number for your meter.

Red flag. Bills for months before your possession passed on to you. Section 11(4)(g) of the RERA Act makes the promoter pay the outgoings, electricity and water charges included, until physical possession is transferred.

Step 3: Put the electricity connection in your name#

Who supplies you. Outside Mumbai, almost all of Maharashtra is served by the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company (MSEDCL), known as Mahavitaran, which had 3.07 crore consumers in November 2024 according to a presentation by the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) in February 2025. In Mumbai the distributor depends on where the building stands: BEST, Adani Electricity Mumbai or Tata Power. Each runs its own forms; what follows is MSEDCL's, because it is the one a Pune buyer meets.

If a meter for your flat already exists, the task is a change of name. MSEDCL takes these online, through its mobile app or mahadiscom.in: choose a property purchase as the reason, upload proof of ownership such as your registered agreement, and pay the processing fee the system shows. Navbharat Live reported in November 2025 that online requests are now approved automatically and completed in 3 to 7 days.

What you will see: the next bill in your name, on the same consumer number. Red flag: arrears on the meter. Ask for the last paid bill before the name moves, while the connection is still the builder's.

If there is no meter for your flat, you apply for a new connection. A MERC practice direction of 25 March 2019 limited what an applicant has to submit to three documents: identity proof, proof of ownership or occupancy of the premises, and the test report of the wiring installation. The Electricity (Rights of Consumers) Rules, 2020, as amended on 22 February 2024, set outer limits on the time a distributor may take: 3 days in metropolitan areas, 7 in other municipal areas and 15 in rural areas.

One more choice may reach you through your society. The same amendment requires a distributor to offer an association of owners either a single-point connection for the whole building or individual connections for each owner, decided by the majority in a transparent ballot. Under a single-point supply the society receives one bill and recovers it from members.

Step 4: Find out how the water reaches your flat#

A new building is usually supplied through one connection to the municipal main, applied for by the builder or the society, and the society recovers the bill from members through its charges; most flats have no municipal meter of their own.

What one corporation asks for shows why the occupancy certificate matters here too. When Pune Municipal Corporation opened new drinking water connections in Mohammadwadi in 2026, its guidelines for housing societies, as Punekar News reported, required the application through a PMC-registered licensed plumber, with ownership papers, the approved building plan, the building's occupancy certificate, a society NOC and an architect's certificate on the tank's leakage and hydraulic testing. Pimpri-Chinchwad and the other corporations set their own lists, so ask the builder which connection serves your building and in whose name it stands. In an integrated township the developer may supply the water itself, as township flat buying explains.

What you will see. Municipal water in the taps, and a water line in the society's bill once the society takes over.

Red flag. A building still on tankers months after possession. Ask the builder in writing whether a municipal connection has been sanctioned, and for its reference.

Step 5: Register for piped gas#

Piped natural gas comes from MNGL (Maharashtra Natural Gas Limited) in Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad and nearby areas, and from MGL (Mahanagar Gas Limited) in Mumbai and Thane. Two things happen, in order. The building is gasified, with the company's pipes laid up to the flats, and MNGL's FAQ says at least half of a society's members need to subscribe for that. Then each flat registers on its own.

For a Pune flat, MNGL's connection request page lists Rs 6,550 per domestic connection on online registration, made up of a non-refundable application fee, an interest-free refundable deposit of Rs 5,000 for the connection and a refundable deposit for gas; its FAQ sets out the same total in a different breakdown, so check the figure on the day. After the online request, MNGL's team contacts the applicant with a registration form, which goes back with one supporting document: an electricity bill, a society receipt, the flat agreement or a rent receipt. The form also asks for your LPG connection details. MGL has told applicants to pay only through its website, never to agents or technicians at the door, and has said a connection can take up to two months depending on site conditions, as PSU Connect reported.

How many Pune homes sit on a pipe and still cook on cylinders became public in September 2026.

What you will see. A meter on the gas line and a bill in your name. Red flag. Anyone collecting a registration payment in person outside the company's own channels.

Step 6: Close the file#

The connections are three of several records that move to you after possession. The property tax assessment is another, covered in the property tax new flat owners pay, and the society's membership and share certificate are the subject of from possession to society. Keep every deposit receipt with the agreement and the Index II: the deposits are refundable, and a refund needs the receipt.

An analogy: the number on a company plan#

A mobile number on a company plan works from the first day. But the bill, the deposit and the right to change anything sit with whoever's name is on the account until the number moves into yours. A new flat's connections are the same: the lights come on at possession, and the account behind them stays the builder's until you transfer it.

Rohit plans the connections from abroad#

Rohit (illustrative, as our stories always are) booked a flat in a Wakad project whose filing names the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation, and his wing is past its 12th slab. Possession has not happened, but he plans to let the flat once it does, through his brother-in-law in Pune acting under a power of attorney, and a tenant will not move into a flat without power and gas. So he is working out the connections now, from abroad. Names and numbers in this story are illustrative.

His agreement's possession clause lists deposits for water, electricity and other utility connections and for the substation, so the builder will arrange the meters and collect those deposits at possession. He emailed the sales office three questions: in whose name the meters would be released, whether MNGL would gasify the building before the handover, and which municipal connection would supply the water. The change of name and the MNGL request are online forms he can file himself; his brother-in-law can let in the meter reader and the gas fitter.

The snag was the power of attorney. Its draft named the flat and the acts for letting it: signing and presenting the agreement, and giving the police and the society their copies. Nothing about utilities, so his brother-in-law could not have signed a supplier's form or collected a refunded deposit for him. Rohit added a clause naming the electricity, gas and water suppliers and the society, for applications, transfers, deposits and refunds. The connections will stay in his own name once the flat is let: MNGL lists a rent receipt among its accepted documents, so a tenant could register for gas, but Rohit would rather the deposits be his and have the leave and licence agreement say the tenant pays the bills.

What the filings show before the keys#

For an owner still waiting, the useful question is when the occupancy certificate will come, because every permanent connection follows it. For any covered Maharashtra project, the Rs 499 ReraGenie buyer report sets out three things that bear on that: the possession story, the first promised date against the current one; construction pace against the district; and the project's filed documents as a ZIP, so the certificate joins your own file once it is filed. It includes a free 90-day project watch, which emails you when that project's filing changes. See what the report contains.

The checklist, in one place#

• Occupancy certificate issued and uploaded.
• Each utility deposit matched to the agreement, with the utility's receipt.
• Distributor identified: MSEDCL outside Mumbai; BEST, Adani Electricity Mumbai or Tata Power inside it.
• Last paid bill in hand, then a change of name, or a new connection on three documents.
• The building's water connection, and whose name it stands in.
• Building gasified, then registration with MNGL or MGL through its own channels.
• From abroad: a power of attorney naming the utilities and the society.
• Every deposit receipt filed with the agreement and the Index II.

Methodology and sources#

• MERC presentation of 25 February 2025 (MSEDCL consumers, November 2024); MERC Practice Direction of 25 March 2019.
• Electricity (Rights of Consumers) Rules, 2020, as amended 22 February 2024.
• MSEDCL's online change of name, as reported by Navbharat Live (November 2025) and The Hitavada (December 2022).
• MNGL's connection request page and FAQ; MNGL figures reported by The Bridge Chronicle and Punekar News (September 2026); MGL's guidance as reported by PSU Connect.
• PMC's Mohammadwadi guidelines for housing societies, as reported by Punekar News (2026).
• Maharashtra's model agreement for sale; RERA Act, 2016, section 11(4)(g).

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