UP RERA 10th Amendment: Transfer Fee Caps & Unregistered Project Complaints

The Problem the 10th Amendment Fixes

For years, builders in Uttar Pradesh treated transfer fees as a private revenue stream. A buyer wanting to resell a flat or transfer it to a family member faced charges of ₹200 to ₹1,000 per square foot. On a large unit, that pushed the fee to ₹25 lakh or even ₹30 lakh. There was no ceiling, no formula, and no way to challenge the figure short of walking away from the deal.

A second problem ran parallel to this. Buyers stuck in projects the promoter never registered with UP RERA had no clear door to knock on. Complaint benches often turned them away because the project did not appear on the portal, leaving allottees with money paid and no regulatory remedy.

The 10th Amendment to the UP RERA General Regulations, 2019, notified on March 25, 2026, addresses both gaps through revised Regulation 47 and revised Regulation 24.

Revised Regulation 47: Hard Caps on Transfer Fees

Regulation 47 now fixes two ceilings. For succession or family transfers to the spouse, son, or daughter of a deceased allottee, the maximum fee a promoter can charge is ₹1,000. For third-party resale transfers, the cap is ₹25,000. These are absolute limits, not per square foot rates, so the size of the unit no longer inflates the fee.

The amendment also removes a documentation burden. No fresh sale deed or lease agreement is required for the transfer. The promoter must instead record an endorsement on the existing agreement, which keeps the original contract intact and avoids a second round of stamp duty on a fresh instrument. If you advise clients on resale chains, you can check the indicative duty on the original instrument using the stamp duty calculator.

Legal heirs claiming a succession transfer must submit the death certificate of the allottee, proof of relationship, and a succession or legal heir certificate where applicable. Promoters cannot demand a fresh agreement as a condition for the endorsement.

Revised Regulation 24: A Complaint Pathway for Unregistered Projects

Revised Regulation 24 closes the door promoters used to escape scrutiny. Designated benches must now hear complaints from allottees in projects that were never registered with UP RERA. The earlier practice of rejecting such complaints because the project was absent from the portal no longer holds.

The process runs on two tracks at once. UP RERA first assesses whether the project legally required registration under Section 3 of the Act, which mandates registration for projects above the area and unit thresholds. At the same time, it moves to penalise the promoter for the failure to register, since non-registration is itself a violation under Section 59. You can see the scale of exposure on the RERA penalty calculator, where Section 59 can run up to ten percent of project cost.

Form M is the operational tool here. It captures the missing project data on the portal, so an unregistered project effectively gets pulled into the regulatory record once a complaint is filed.

What Registered Consultants Must Do on Resale Deals

Your advisory duty starts before any money changes hands. When a client is buying or selling a resale unit, tell them the transfer fee is now capped at ₹25,000 for a third-party transfer. Put this in writing in your advisory note. If the builder's transfer demand letter shows a per square foot figure or a lump sum above ₹25,000, that demand is not enforceable after March 25, 2026.

The same discipline applies to inheritance cases. A widow transferring her late husband's flat to her own name, or a son receiving his father's allotment, pays ₹1,000 and nothing more. Flag any attempt to charge more as a breach of Regulation 47.

This sits squarely within the conduct expected of a registered real estate agent under Section 10, which requires honest disclosure and bars facilitating any practice that misleads the allottee. Recording the capped figure protects both your client and your own registration.

Filing a Complaint When a Builder Overcharges

If a promoter demands more than the capped fee, the remedy is a complaint to UP RERA under Section 31, filed in the prescribed form with the prescribed fee. Attach the builder's transfer demand letter, the original agreement showing the unit details, and your client's payment records. The demand letter is the key piece of evidence because it shows the overcharge in the promoter's own words.

For a client trapped in an unregistered project, the route now runs through revised Regulation 24. File the complaint with the designated bench and use Form M to record the project details that the promoter never disclosed on the portal. Do not wait for the promoter to register first. The bench is required to take up the complaint and assess registration liability in parallel.

Keep copies of every endorsement and receipt. A clean paper trail decides these matters faster than argument.

Exam-Relevant Callouts

Examiners under the UP RERA syllabus reward precise recall, so fix these figures. The amendment is the 10th Amendment to the General Regulations, 2019, effective March 25, 2026. Two regulations changed: Regulation 47 on transfer fees and Regulation 24 on unregistered project complaints.

Remember the two fee caps without confusing them. Family or succession transfer to spouse, son, or daughter of a deceased allottee is capped at ₹1,000. Third-party resale transfer is capped at ₹25,000. No fresh sale deed is needed, only an endorsement on the existing agreement.

The two-tier verification under Regulation 24 is a common question type: UP RERA first checks whether registration was required, then penalises the promoter, with Form M capturing the missing portal data. Test these against timed papers on the UP RERA mock test and revise the regulation numbering through the exam pattern and syllabus guide before your attempt.