MahaRERA: Your 5-Year Repair Warranty Runs From Possession, Not OC

The builder says your warranty expired. Check when it actually started.

A builder tells you the five-year repair warranty on your flat is over, so the cracked wall and the leaking ceiling are now your problem. Before you accept that, ask one question: five years from what date?

Many builders count from the date of the Occupancy Certificate, the OC, which is the municipal approval saying the building is fit to live in. But the OC is often issued months or even years before you actually get your keys. If the clock starts from the OC, the builder gets to shave real time off your warranty, time you never spent living in the flat.

A MahaRERA order dated 22 October 2026 addressed exactly this. The ruling draws a hard line between when a building got its OC and when a buyer got possession, and it matters for the money you would otherwise pay to fix defects yourself.

What Section 14(3) actually promises you

Section 14(3) of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 puts a specific duty on the promoter, the builder or developer. If any structural defect, defect in workmanship, or shortfall in the quality of services shows up within five years of you being handed possession, the builder must fix it at no cost to you. If the builder does not, you are entitled to compensation.

Read the wording carefully: the five years run from "the date of handing over possession." Not from the OC. Not from when the building was finished. From the day the flat became yours to occupy.

This covers the things that genuinely cost money to repair, cracks in load-bearing elements, water seepage, poor finishing, failed plumbing or electrical work. It does not cover ordinary wear and tear or damage you caused. The point is simple: the defect has to be the builder's, and it has to surface inside your five-year window.

What MahaRERA ruled in the Gundecha order

In Complaint No. CC12500643 against Gundecha Construction Pvt. Ltd., MahaRERA partly allowed the complaint and held that the five-year defect liability period under Section 14(3) begins from the actual date of handing over possession, not merely from the date of the Occupancy Certificate.

That holding does the heavy lifting. A developer cannot point to an old OC and argue your warranty ran out, when you only took possession well after that OC was issued. The statute ties the liability to possession, and MahaRERA read it that way.

The specific directions in the order, whether rectification was ordered, any amount of compensation, and the exact defects complained of, were not fully visible in the reporting available, so treat those as unconfirmed. If you want the precise findings, pull the final order from the MahaRERA portal. This is not the first time MahaRERA has enforced Section 14(3): an earlier 2026 order directed a builder to inspect and repair leakage years after possession, because the complaint fell inside the five-year window.

How to find your actual possession date

Your possession date is a documented event, not a guess. Look for the possession letter, sometimes called the handover letter or letter of possession, which the builder gives you when you take the keys. That letter carries a date, and that date is your warranty start point.

Do not use the OC date. The OC is a separate certificate from the local municipal body, and it usually sits in your file alongside the possession letter. If you are seeing the OC date quoted back at you by the builder, that is the number to challenge.

If you cannot find a possession letter, other evidence helps establish when you actually moved in: the date your maintenance charges started, the electricity meter transfer or first bill in your name, your registered agreement for sale and the date of final payment. Keep all of it together. In a dispute, the burden is on showing when possession was genuinely handed over.

Working out whether your window is still open

The arithmetic is plain. Add five years to your possession date. If today, 5 November 2026, falls before that date, your Section 14(3) warranty is live and the builder is on the hook.

Say your possession letter is dated 1 March 2023. Your window runs to 1 March 2028, so a seepage complaint raised now is well inside it, regardless of what the OC says. If the OC was issued in, say, mid-2021, the builder counting from there would wrongly tell you the warranty ends in 2026. The Gundecha order is the answer to that move.

Do not delay once you spot a defect. Even though the statutory period is generous, a complaint filed early is easier to prove and harder for the builder to shrug off as wear and tear. Photograph the defect, date the photographs, and raise it in writing first.

Filing a rectification complaint at MahaRERA

Start by writing to the builder. Send a dated letter or email describing the defect, attaching photographs, and asking for repair under Section 14(3) within a reasonable time. Keep proof of delivery. This written demand becomes part of your record if the matter goes further.

If the builder refuses, delays, or quotes the OC date at you, you can file a complaint with MahaRERA against the promoter. You will need your agreement for sale, the possession letter, your earlier correspondence, and the dated evidence of the defect. The complaint is filed online through the MahaRERA portal.

MahaRERA also runs a conciliation forum where buyer and builder can try to settle before a full hearing, which can be faster for a straightforward repair demand. If MahaRERA passes an order and the builder still does not comply, there is a non-compliance process to enforce the order. An appeal against a MahaRERA order goes to the Appellate Tribunal within 60 days under Section 44.

If you bought from the first owner, this ruling protects you too

The Gundecha order carries a specific point for second-hand buyers. MahaRERA held that a developer cannot rely solely on an old OC date to claim that the statutory defect liability period applicable to a subsequent purchaser has expired.

That matters because resale buyers are the easiest to brush off. You bought from the first owner, the building is a few years old, and the builder tells you the warranty died long ago by reference to the OC. Under this ruling, the relevant date is still when possession was handed over, and the five-year protection is tied to the flat, not lost simply because the OC is old.

So before you buy a resale flat, get the original possession letter from the seller, confirm the OC date separately, and verify the carpet area and specifications against the original agreement. Your practical next step: locate your possession letter, mark the five-year date on your calendar, and if a builder waves the OC at you, confirm the actual order wording on the MahaRERA portal before you pay to fix anything yourself.