Every building carries a set of names: the architect who drew it, the engineer who certified it stands up, the chartered accountant who certified the money. In a dispute those names matter more than the brochure, and most of them are findable before you buy.
Key takeaways
- A special building's application must be accompanied by a structural stability certificate signed by a licensed structural engineer, under Regulation 2.2.15.
- That certificate covers safety against loads, forces and effects including earthquake, landslides, cyclones and floods.
- Regulation 12.1 requires design to the National Building Code and to Bureau of Indian Standards norms for earthquake resistance, fire safety and natural calamities, with a certificate from the licensed structural engineer submitted with the proposal.
- Regulation 2.2.16 requires every plan to be signed and to carry the professional's name, address and registration number.
- Above 70 m, Regulation 6.12 places responsibility for stability and safety on the owner or developer and their appointed consultants, not on the Authority.
- MahaRERA publishes the certifying professionals for every project, so the names are checkable for free.
The certificate that comes before permission
Chapter 2, Regulation 2.2.15, UDCPR as updated 30 January 2025 is short and specific. In the case of special buildings, the application shall be accompanied by a structural stability certificate signed by the licensed structural engineer, to the effect that the building is safe against various loads, forces and effects including those due to natural disasters such as earthquake, landslides, cyclones and floods.
That is a certificate given before permission is granted, on a design rather than on a finished building, by a named individual whose licence is on the line.
Chapter 12, Regulation 12.1, Structural Design then sets what the design must satisfy: structural design of foundations, masonry, plain and reinforced concrete, pre-stressed concrete and structural steel in accordance with Part 6 of the National Building Code of India, and construction to the norms specified by the Bureau of Indian Standards for resistance to earthquake, fire safety and natural calamities. A certificate to that effect is submitted by the licensed structural engineer of the developer or land owner along with the proposal for development permission.
Chapter 12, Regulation 12.2, Quality of Materials and Workmanship adds that materials and workmanship must conform generally to the accepted standards of the Public Works Department of Maharashtra and to Indian Standard specifications, and to Parts 5 and 7 of the National Building Code.
The plan carries the name
Chapter 2, Regulation 2.2.16, Signing the Plan is the provision that makes all of this traceable.
All plans shall be duly signed by the owner and any co-owner, and by the architect or town planner or licensed engineer or supervisor, and shall indicate his name, address and registration or licence number allotted by the Authority.
This is why a sanctioned plan is worth asking for even if you cannot read a structural drawing. The title block tells you who signed, under what licence number, and that is a fact you can carry to the register and check against everything else that person has certified.
The public MahaRERA filing for a project lists its architect, engineer and chartered accountant. Reading the two documents together lets you ask a question that is otherwise unanswerable: how many other projects does this engineer certify, and how have those projects performed on their filed timelines.
Above 70 metres, the code says who is liable
Regulation 6.12 applies to any building over 70.0 m and it does something the rest of Chapter 12 does not. After requiring compliance with structural design and stability, geo-technical aspects and fire safety norms under UDCPR, the Maharashtra Fire Prevention and Life Safety Measures Act, 2006 and the National Building Code, and after requiring certificates from structural and geo-technical engineers with the application, it allocates responsibility:
The responsibility of structural and other stability and safety of such high-rise buildings shall lie with owner / developer and concerned expert, consultant, executants appointed by owner / developer.
Read that as a buyer rather than as a lawyer. The Authority grants permission on the strength of certificates; it does not thereby assume responsibility for the structure. The people who carry that are the developer and the professionals they appointed and paid.
Which means the identity and track record of those professionals is not a technicality on a form. On a tall building it is the substance of who answers if something is wrong, and it is public information.
When a building is declared unsafe
Chapter 2, Regulation 2.13, UDCPR as updated 30 January 2025 is three lines and covers what most people assume is a complicated area.
All unsafe buildings shall be considered to constitute a danger to public safety and hygiene and sanitation, and shall be restored by repairs, or demolished, or dealt with as otherwise directed by the Authority. The procedure for the action the Authority takes comes from the relevant provisions of the regulations and the Act.
Two things follow. There is no third category in which an unsafe building is simply left as it is: the outcomes are repair, demolition, or a direction from the Authority. And the declaration itself carries consequences elsewhere in the code, because the margin rules give a redevelopment a materially easier margin regime where a building was declared dangerous or dilapidated by lawful order, or is simply more than 30 years old.
Chapter 2, Regulation 2.14, Offences and Penalties* sits alongside it: a person who contravenes the regulations is guilty of an offence punishable under Section 52 of the Act, is subject to further action including demolition of unauthorised works under Sections 53 and 54, and where that person is a licensed engineer, structural engineer, town planner or other licensed professional, the licence itself is exposed.
Names and numbers in this story are illustrative. Priya and Arjun's shortlist included one project whose filing named an engineer who appeared on a large number of other registrations. That is not a fault in itself, and busy professionals certify many buildings.
What it did give them was a question worth asking, and a way to ask it that did not depend on anyone's goodwill: they looked at how the other projects carrying that name had performed against their own filed completion dates.
What to check
- Ask whether the building is a special building, because that is what triggers the Regulation 2.2.15 certificate.
- Read the title block of the sanctioned plan for the name and licence number of whoever signed it.
- Match that against the MahaRERA filing, which names the architect, engineer and chartered accountant publicly.
- On a building above 70 m, treat the consultants as material, since Regulation 6.12 places the responsibility there.
- For a redevelopment, ask whether the old building was declared unsafe by lawful order, because that changes both the process and the margins the new scheme was designed to.
Where the filings come in
This is the part of due diligence the public register is actually good at. Certificates and plans sit with the Authority, but the professionals a project names are published.
Every MahaRERA filing at reragenie.com is free to read and lists the certifying architect, engineer and chartered accountant, the buildings and their floors, the promoter's extension history with the stated reasons, and any complaints or litigation with case numbers.
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 new complaint reaches you by email.
For the safety provisions you can check on site yourself, see lifts, refuge areas, exits and parapets.
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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