The short answer: a registered agreement is not the transfer. The Authority's endorsement is. Regulation 11.2.10 sets out how a Development Right Certificate changes hands, and the gap between those two steps is where money sits idle.
Key takeaways
- On the holder's death, the DRC transfers only on production of prescribed documents, after verification of title and legal successor.
- On a voluntary transfer, the holder submits the original DRC with an application, prescribed documents, and a registered agreement signed by both parties.
- The application seeks endorsement of the transferee's name on the certificate.
- The transfer is not valid without the Authority's endorsement.
- Until then the certificate remains available for use only to the transferor.
- Utilisation of TDR from the certificate is not permissible during the transfer procedure.
The two routes
Chapter 11, Regulation 11.2.10, UDCPR as updated 30 January 2025 deals with succession and sale separately.
| Situation | What the Authority requires |
|---|---|
| Death of the holder | Transfer only on production of the documents prescribed from time to time, after due verification and satisfaction regarding title and legal successor |
| Voluntary transfer | The original DRC, an application, the relevant documents prescribed by the Authority, and a registered agreement duly signed by transferor and transferee, seeking endorsement of the transferee's name |
What changes the answer
Three sentences in clause (ii) decide the commercial risk, and they should be read together.
The transfer shall not be valid without endorsement by the Authority. A registered agreement between two willing parties does not move the certificate.
In such circumstances the certificate shall be available for use only to the holder or transferor. Until endorsement, the rights remain the seller's to use, not the buyer's.
The utilisation of TDR from such certificate shall not be permissible during the transfer procedure. So while the file is with the Authority, neither party can use it. The seller cannot, because they have parted with it commercially and submitted the original. The buyer cannot, because they are not yet endorsed.
For anyone timing a purchase of development rights against a construction programme, that window is the thing to plan around. The certificate is a live asset before the application and after the endorsement, and dormant in between.
Where a DRC comes from
Development Right Certificates are generated by the routes in Chapter 11 and by several provisions outside it. Regulation 11.2.2 covers land under reservations, new roads and road widening subject to acquisition. Regulation 14.5.3 compensates a heritage owner deprived of FSI by a refusal or a condition. Regulation 3.5 offers TDR as an alternative to in-situ FSI for handed over amenity space. Regulation 7.2 offers it against land surrendered for a road.
Wherever the certificate came from, Regulation 11.2.8's five restricted areas govern where it can finally be landed, and this transfer procedure governs how it gets to whoever lands it.
Related rule cards
- TDR: what earns it, and where it may never land
- Reservation Credit Certificate
- Surrender land for a road, and the FSI comes back
Where the filings come in
DRC transfers are recorded by the Planning Authority, not in the RERA register. The register shows the downstream result: the projects that were built with the rights, their filed land areas, their buildings and floors, and their timelines.
Every filing is free to read at reragenie.com. ReraGenie's project analysis, Rs 2,999 for one project, reads the full filing and the documents behind it, and the area consolidated report covers a whole micro-market at Rs 2,999 for the first project and Rs 1,999 per additional one.
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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