The occupancy certificate has come through, and the letter you have waited years for arrives: the flat is ready, and possession will follow payment of the amounts below. The final instalment is there, and after it a dozen more lines, some familiar from the agreement and some you have never seen. Most of the possession charges flat buyers are asked for at this point are real costs the agreement fixed long ago. A few may not be. The letter does not say which is which. Your agreement for sale does, line by line, and it deserves an evening before any money moves.
Key takeaways
- Maharashtra's model agreement lists six possession deposits: share money and the entrance fee, society formation and registration, a share of taxes, advance maintenance, utility connection deposits and a substation deposit.
- Section 11(4)(g) of the RERA Act makes the promoter pay the outgoings until physical possession passes, and MahaRERA has held that maintenance cannot be demanded before the occupancy certificate.
- The model price is escalation-free except for increases in development charges and other levies the authorities impose, with the notification enclosed and the increase applied only to later payments.
- Section 19(7) charges interest on late payment of what the agreement makes due, so pay the undisputed lines on time and dispute the rest in writing.
- A housing society's monthly charges carry 18 percent GST only above Rs 7,500 a month per member where its turnover is Rs 20 lakh or more, and then, on CBIC's reading, on the whole amount.
Meera's twelve lines
Meera (illustrative, as our stories always are) is 41 and moving from her Thane flat, which she is keeping, to a 3BHK on the twelfth floor of a KDMC tower near Dombivli. Her possession letter came a week after the occupancy certificate appeared on the project's MahaRERA page: the final instalment and twelve more lines, payable within three weeks. Her instinct was to forward it to her broker and pay. But a parking letter in her older building had once taught her what an unread line costs, so she put the demand beside her agreement. Ten lines matched a clause, most of them to the rupee. Two did not, at first reading: a corpus fund of Rs 1.25 lakh, and Rs 1.8 lakh of "infrastructure development charges". Names and numbers in this story are illustrative.
What the law actually says
The model agreement's deposit list. Every MahaRERA-registered project's agreement must be in accordance with the model form in Annexure A to the state's 2017 RERA rules, as the model agreement's load-bearing clauses explains. For possession, the model has the buyer, "on or before delivery of possession", keep deposited with the promoter amounts for:
- share money and the society's application entrance fee;
- the society's formation and registration;
- a proportionate share of taxes and other charges or levies;
- a "deposit towards provisional monthly contribution towards outgoings", meaning maintenance paid in advance;
- water, electricity and other utility and service connection charges;
- the electrical receiving and substation facilities provided in the layout.
A separate clause adds a stated sum for legal costs: forming the society and its bye-laws, and preparing the conveyance. There is no corpus, club membership or infrastructure charge on the list. Those can still be lawful, but only where your own agreement provides for them.
Whose money the deposits are. The provisional contribution "shall not carry any interest and remain with the Promoter until a conveyance" of the building to the society, and on conveyance the deposits, less the deductions the agreement allows, are paid over to the society. MOFA, the 1963 flats law that RERA now overlays, had already required promoters to keep money taken for share capital, taxes, water charges and outgoings in a separate account. The duty is enforced: in a recent decision reported by LiveLaw, the Maharashtra Real Estate Appellate Tribunal directed promoters to produce audited accounts of the maintenance, clubhouse charges and corpus they had collected, and to refund the balance to the society with interest where applicable.
The one reason the price can rise. "The Total Price is escalation-free, save and except escalations/increases, due to increase on account of development charges payable to the competent authority", along with other levies the authorities impose. Even then the promoter must "enclose the said notification/order/rule/regulation" with the demand, and the increase "shall only be applicable on subsequent payments".
What the RERA Act adds. Section 11(4)(g) makes the promoter pay all outgoings, including municipal taxes, water and electricity charges and maintenance, until it transfers physical possession, and MahaRERA has held that maintenance cannot be demanded before the occupancy certificate. Section 19(6) is the buyer's side: payments "in the manner and within the time as specified in the said agreement for sale", including "the share of the registration charges, municipal taxes, water and electricity charges, maintenance charges, ground rent, and other charges, if any". Section 19(7) charges interest "at such rate as may be prescribed" on any delay, in Maharashtra SBI's highest marginal cost of lending rate plus 2 percent. What the agreement specifies is due on time. A line with no clause behind it is a request until the promoter shows its basis.
GST on maintenance
A housing society's monthly charges to its own members are exempt from GST up to Rs 7,500 a month per member. Under CBIC Circular 109/28/2019-GST, GST at 18 percent applies only where a member's contribution exceeds that and the society's annual turnover is Rs 20 lakh or more, and then, on the circular's own illustration, to the whole contribution: on Rs 9,000, to all Rs 9,000, not the Rs 1,500 above the limit. A single judge of the Madras High Court held on 1 July 2021 that only the excess is taxable, but a Division Bench stayed that order on the tax department's appeal, so plan on the circular's reading.
Source: CBIC Circular 109/28/2019-GST; Madras High Court, single-judge order of 1 July 2021, stayed by a Division Bench on appeal; ReraGenie arithmetic
The exemption is written for a society serving its members. A promoter collecting maintenance before the society exists is not one, so if your letter adds GST to the maintenance advance, the Rs 7,500 limit is not the test: ask for the tax invoice and the rate. GST on the flat itself is covered in GST on flats.
The charges, line by line
The real cost of buying a flat totals these lines for planning before you book. This table tests each one on the day the demand arrives.
| Charge | Lawful basis | What to ask for |
|---|---|---|
| Final instalment | Your agreement's payment schedule, under section 19(6) | The stage that triggers it, normally the occupancy certificate |
| Share money, entrance fee, society formation | The model's deposit list | A receipt showing it is held for the society, and the registration status |
| Share of taxes and levies | The model's deposit list | How it was computed, covering no month before your possession |
| Advance maintenance | The model's deposit list; held without interest until conveyance | The monthly rate, the number of months, and a start date no earlier than the OC |
| Utility and substation deposits | The model's deposit list | The utility's demand or receipt behind each figure |
| Legal charges | A separate model clause: society, bye-laws, conveyance | The figure in your agreement, and when the conveyance is due |
| Corpus or sinking fund | Only if your agreement provides one | The clause, and confirmation that it passes to the society |
| Club membership | Only if your agreement provides one | The clause, and what it adds to the amenities your agreement already lists |
| Infrastructure or development charges | A figure your agreement states, or an increase the authorities impose, under the escalation clause | The clause; for an increase, the notification, enclosed and applied only to later payments |
| Parking | Stilt and open parking cannot be sold separately; a priced covered space sits in the total price | Where your agreement already prices it |
The parking row follows the Supreme Court's 2010 ruling on stilt and open parking, explained in what a builder can sell you. The utility deposits pay for connections that still have to be moved into your own name after possession, which the electricity connection for a new flat walks through.
Your routes, compared
| Route | What it can achieve | Use it when |
|---|---|---|
| Written request to the promoter | The clause and computation behind a line, and a revised demand | Always first |
| Pay the undisputed lines, dispute the rest in writing | Keeps you out of default under section 19(7) | A line is still unexplained on the due date |
| MahaRERA's conciliation forum | A signed settlement, binding on both sides | Both sides want the handover to go ahead |
| Complaint to MahaRERA | An order on the disputed charges; compensation claims go to the adjudicating officer | The promoter will not drop an unsupported charge, or holds back possession over it |
The conciliation forum and how to file a MahaRERA complaint cover the last two routes.
An analogy: the hotel folio
At a hotel checkout the folio carries the rate agreed at booking, then lines that are mostly real: the city tax, the deposit taken at check-in, the dinner you signed for. Now and then one line was never on the tariff card. Nobody refuses the whole bill for one wrong line, and nobody pays the wrong line because the rest is right. A possession demand is that folio, your agreement is the tariff card, and MahaRERA stands behind the desk if the desk will not move.
How the regulator's docket stands
Where a letter does not settle a line, the forum is MahaRERA, which disposed of more complaints in 2025 than it received that year, according to figures it released on 5 January 2026.
Source: MahaRERA figures released on 5 January 2026
What to do this week
- Mark every line against its clause, or write "none" beside it. Most lines match, often to the rupee, and those are simply due.
- Ask in writing for the basis of the rest: the authority's notification for a development charge, the clause for a corpus or club charge. First, look the project up on ReraGenie: its free page lists every document the promoter filed, which usually includes the proforma agreement for sale filed at registration, and the complaints already filed against the project with case numbers, so you will know whether other buyers have raised the same line.
- Check the dates. Maintenance should not start before the occupancy certificate, and the tax share should not reach back into months when the building was the promoter's to run. The first bill in your own name is computed as property tax on a new flat explains.
- Pay the undisputed lines by the due date, with a covering letter listing what you dispute and why.
- Ask for receipts that name each deposit. Share money, the maintenance advance and a corpus collected for the society are the society's money in the promoter's hands. From possession to society covers collecting the figures, and maintenance charges what the society may charge once it takes over.
- If the keys are held back over a disputed line, follow OC received, keys withheld.
Do not hold back the whole payment because one line is wrong. Section 19(7) charges interest at the prescribed rate on anything due that you pay late, and a buyer in default hands the promoter the argument. Pay what is clearly owed on time, dispute the rest in writing, and keep both letters.
What Meera found
The corpus was hers. Her agreement's possession clause listed exactly Rs 1.25 lakh, to be handed over to the society, on a page she had initialled when she signed. She paid it and asked for a receipt describing it as held for the society, which the builder's reply confirmed.
The infrastructure line had nothing behind it. The only clause that let her price rise was the escalation clause, and the letter enclosed no notification from KDMC or any other authority. She asked for one in writing, and eleven days later a revised letter arrived without the line. She had not waited to pay: on the due date she paid every undisputed line, with a short letter naming the one she disputed. Not every line that looks like padding is padding, and not every line on a letterhead is owed.
What the filings add
For any covered Maharashtra project, the Rs 499 ReraGenie buyer report brings three things to this letter. The project's filed documents come as a ZIP, so the possession clause you signed can be read beside the proforma agreement the promoter filed with MahaRERA. Complaints and cases are set out in plain words with case numbers, showing whether other buyers in the project have already taken a dispute to MahaRERA. And the possession story, the first promised date against the current one, comes with your rights under RERA and a worked delay-interest example, worth having before you settle the closing account of a flat that arrived late. See what the report contains.
Once the keys are yours, the next clock is the five-year defect liability period, covered in builder liability for defects.
The one-line summary
A possession demand is your agreement's possession clause with the figures filled in, plus whatever else was added: pay what the agreement and the Act make due on time, ask in writing for the clause behind every other line, and remember that the maintenance advance, and any corpus collected for the society, are the society's money in the promoter's keeping.
Methodology and sources
- Model form of agreement for sale, Annexure A to the Maharashtra Real Estate (Regulation and Development) (Registration of Real Estate Projects, Registration of Real Estate Agents, Rates of Interest and Disclosures on Website) Rules, 2017, as published by MahaRERA.
- Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016, sections 11(4)(g), 19(6) and 19(7); Maharashtra Ownership of Flats Act, 1963.
- MahaRERA orders on maintenance before the occupancy certificate, as reported by Mumbai Live, DNA and the Real Estate Law Journal; the Appellate Tribunal's direction on audited accounts, as reported by LiveLaw.
- CBIC Circular 109/28/2019-GST; Madras High Court, Greenwood Owners Association v Union of India, 1 July 2021, stayed on appeal; Tamil Nadu Authority for Advance Ruling, TN/16/ARA/2025, 7 May 2025.
- MahaRERA complaint figures released on 5 January 2026.
This article is educational and not legal advice. For a dispute, consult a lawyer who practices before your state's RERA.
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