Maharashtra Bans Registration of Flats in Unauthorised Buildings: Agent Checklist

The Order: No Approval, No Registration

Maharashtra Revenue Department Circular No. 2026/Pr.Kr.367/Mudrank-2, dated 12 October 2026, directs every Sub-Registrar in the state to refuse registration of flat documents tied to unauthorised construction. That covers two distinct problems: buildings put up without competent authority permission, and buildings where the actual construction exceeds the sanctioned plan, think an extra floor or two that was never approved.

The circular reaches first-sale agreements, sale deeds, apartment deeds and transfer deeds. Before a Sub-Registrar accepts any of these, as reported by Punekar News, the prescribed approvals and the sanctioned plan must be on record. News reports attribute the directive to Revenue Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule, acting on instructions from Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, following a review meeting on 22 September 2026 where oversized flat sales and illegal construction were flagged.

The full text was not directly accessed for this article, so treat the clause-level detail as reported rather than verbatim.

Why This Lands on the Agent's Desk

A document that fails at the Sub-Registrar's counter is a deal that collapses after the buyer has paid stamp duty, arranged a loan and in many cases handed over money. You are the person who brought the parties together, and you are the first one the buyer calls.

Press reports name the regions where violations were flagged: the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, Thane, Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Haveli, Mulshi and Nagpur. If you broker in any of these markets, assume Sub-Registrars are checking harder than they were a month ago. Officials who knowingly register documents in breach of the order face departmental inquiry, per Free Press Journal, so expect fewer favours at the counter.

Structures that cannot be regularised may face demolition proceedings. That is the worst outcome for a buyer, and the one your due diligence exists to prevent. The fix is boring and effective: check the paperwork before you recommend the flat.

The MahaRERA Link You Cannot Skip

This is where the circular bites RERA professionals specifically. For any project that required MahaRERA registration under Section 3 of the Act, Punekar News reports that the MahaRERA registration certificate or the occupancy certificate must accompany the document at registration, along with the sanctioned building plan specifying the flat area.

So a project that should have registered with MahaRERA but never did is squarely exposed. Section 3(2) spells out the only exemptions: land not exceeding 500 square metres or no more than eight apartments across all phases, and projects that received a completion certificate before the Act commenced. If a building does not fit one of those carve-outs and has no RERA number, it needed one, and the Sub-Registrar now has a reason to stop.

When a RERA number looks thin, our breakdown of what each phase-wise registration actually covers will tell you whether the whole building or just a wing is registered.

The Pre-Transaction Checklist

Run these before you recommend the flat, not after the buyer is emotionally committed.

One: the MahaRERA registration certificate under Section 3. Pull the project up on the MahaRERA portal and confirm the number is live, not lapsed or in abeyance. Two: the sanctioned building plan with floor-area detail. This is the document the Sub-Registrar now wants, and it is what proves the flat exists on paper where it stands in brick. Three: occupancy certificate status, confirm whether an OC has been issued, and for which part of the building. Four: the competent authority approvals, the municipal or planning permissions that authorised the construction in the first place.

Cross-check the sold area against the sanctioned area. A flat marketed as larger than the plan allows is exactly what this circular is written to catch. Our wider pre-sale legal checklist for consultants folds these items into a routine you can run before every showing.

Reading the Plan and the Area

The area mismatch is the trap most likely to surprise an honest broker. A developer sells on built-up or super built-up numbers, the sanctioned plan records a specific layout, and the gap between what was approved and what was constructed is where unauthorised additional floors hide.

Ask for the sanctioned plan and the floor plan for the specific flat, then match the flat you are selling to the floor it sits on. If the plan sanctions ground-plus-seven and your client's flat is on the ninth floor, you have found the problem before the Sub-Registrar does. Section 14 of RERA also bars a promoter from altering sanctioned plans without the written consent of at least two-thirds of the allottees, so an unapproved addition is a RERA breach in its own right.

If carpet and super area numbers are tripping you up, the carpet area calculator helps you sanity-check what the developer is quoting against the plan.

The Professional Risk If You Skip It

Facilitate a sale that then fails registration, and you are not a bystander. The buyer paid on your recommendation. When the document is refused, you face a client dispute at minimum, and a MahaRERA complaint is a realistic next step.

Section 10 sets out an agent's duties, and Section 62 makes a breach expensive: Rs 10,000 for every day of default, up to 5% of the cost of the plot, apartment or building. Add the reputational hit of a deal that unravelled publicly, and the arithmetic favours the document check every time. Our comparison of penalty exposure across the RERA sections shows where agent liability sits against the promoter's.

This circular does not add a new form to file. It raises the cost of not doing the diligence you were always meant to do. Verify the RERA certificate, the sanctioned plan, the OC status and the approvals, and keep copies. If a seller cannot produce them, that refusal is your answer, and this check is now non-negotiable before any sale you put your name near.