Your Housing Society Can Be Held as Promoter If the Developer Fails

The society can be on the hook, not just the builder

On April 8, 2026, the Bombay High Court ruled that a cooperative housing society can be treated as a 'Promoter' under the RERA Act when it profits from a redevelopment deal. The case is Shri Sai Vishram Co-operative Housing Society Ltd. v. Ninad Padmakar Paralkar (Writ Petition No. 2221 of 2025).

Here is the plain-language version. A 'Promoter' under Section 2(zk) of the RERA Act is the party legally responsible to you, the buyer, for building and handing over your flat. Usually that is the developer. But if your society took a commercial benefit out of the redevelopment, extra flats, a share of the sale revenue, or a share of the new built-up area, the court held it can also count as a Promoter.

What that means for your money: if the project stalls and you never get possession, you may be able to recover from the society as well as the developer. The court held the two can be jointly and severally liable, meaning you can pursue either or both for the full amount owed.

What actually happened in this case

The buyers had originally booked flats with the first developer, referred to in the summary as Saaga. The project stalled and possession was never delivered. So the buyers did what RERA lets any allottee do when possession is delayed: they filed complaints before MahaRERA under Section 18, seeking their money back with interest.

By the time it reached MahaRERA, a second developer, Aaryadeep, was in the picture. MahaRERA held the society jointly and severally liable along with the developer to refund the amounts the buyers had paid. The society challenged that before the High Court, and the High Court agreed with the principle that a society drawing commercial benefit can be treated as a Promoter.

The exact structure of the society's benefit in this case, whether it was an area share or a revenue share, is not spelt out in the public summary of the ruling. If you want the precise arrangement, you will need the full judgment text. Section 18 itself entitles you to a refund with interest, or interest for every month of delay if you choose to stay; you can estimate that using a Section 18 delay interest calculator.

How this differs from the 2019 ruling

There was an earlier Bombay High Court view, from 2019, where a society that took over a stalled project after the developer's agreement was terminated was NOT held liable for the free-sale flats. On the face of it that looks like the opposite result. It is not.

The difference is where the benefit came from. In the 2019 situation, the society stepped in after termination to rescue a dead project, it did not design the deal to profit from selling flats to outsiders. In the 2026 case, the reasoning turns on the society deriving commercial benefit from the original redevelopment arrangement itself.

So the test a court will apply is simple to state, even if the facts get messy: did your society sign up to gain something commercially from the redevelopment, or did it merely inherit a mess someone else left behind? Commercial benefit at the outset points toward Promoter liability. A rescue after collapse does not, on its own.

Who to check before you book in a redevelopment project

Redevelopment flats are sold in two buckets. 'Rehab' flats go to the society's existing members who gave up their old homes. 'Free-sale' flats are the extra units the developer sells to outsiders to fund the project. If you are buying from outside, you are almost always buying a free-sale flat, and that is exactly where these disputes land.

Before you pay anything, pull the MahaRERA registration for the project and read who is named as the Promoter. Note whether the society appears anywhere in the registration, the development agreement, or the disclosures. Check who currently holds the registration if there has been a change of developer, because a developer takeover on a stalled project changes who is answerable to you.

Do not rely on the builder's brochure or the broker's word for who is responsible. The registration page and the registered agreement are what a MahaRERA bench will actually look at. If a phase-wise registration is involved, confirm which RERA number covers the tower and flat you are buying, because that governs your phase-wise registration and due diligence.

Naming the society as a respondent in a Section 18 complaint

If your redevelopment project is delayed and you want to file a Section 18 complaint for refund or delay interest, you can name more than one respondent. Where the facts support it, name both the developer and the society, and set out plainly why you say the society is a Promoter: because it drew a commercial benefit from the redevelopment.

This ruling establishes the principle that a benefiting society can be held liable. It does not, as far as any confirmed source shows, change MahaRERA's complaint form or its registration procedures. Treat the form as unchanged and file the way you normally would; what changes is who you can realistically include as a respondent and the argument you build around the society's role.

Spell out your relief clearly, whether that is a refund of what you paid with interest, or interest for the delay if you still want the flat. A poorly framed prayer is one of the defences developers use to escape Section 18 liability.

Documents that prove the society took a commercial benefit

Your case against the society rises or falls on one thing: evidence that it profited. So ask, in writing, for the documents that show it.

Start with the registered development agreement or redevelopment agreement between the society and the developer. That is the master document, and it usually spells out what the society gets: additional flats, a corpus payment, a revenue share, or an area share. Ask also for any supplementary agreements, the society's general body resolutions approving the redevelopment terms, and the allotment letters or agreements for the members' rehab flats.

If the society or the developer refuses to hand these over, that refusal is itself worth recording. Many of these documents are registered and can be traced independently. Where a change of developer happened, get the deed of assignment or the tripartite agreement too, because it shows what benefit carried over. Keep every payment receipt and email of your own, since your paper trail is what puts a number on the refund you are claiming.

What to do next

If you already own or have booked a redevelopment flat and the project is stalled, do three concrete things this week. First, open the MahaRERA project page and confirm exactly who is named as Promoter and whether the registration is active, in abeyance, or lapsed. Second, send a written request to the society and the developer asking for the development agreement and the general body resolutions that approved the redevelopment terms. Third, gather every receipt and agreement you signed.

If possession is already overdue, a Section 18 complaint before MahaRERA is your route, and this ruling means the society may be a valid respondent where it profited from the deal. If you want help translating the delay into a rupee figure before you file, walk through a practical guide to Section 18 delay interest.

Check the official MahaRERA portal at maharera.maharashtra.gov.in for the current complaint procedure and confirm any fee or figure there before you rely on it. And if the case turns on how the society's benefit was structured, get the full text of the April 8, 2026 judgment rather than a summary, because the specific arrangement in your project is what a bench will weigh.