Five RERA protections every Maharashtra home buyer should know, with the section for each

Rules as of 12 October 2026.

The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 is the central law for buying a home in a new project. Every state runs its own regulator under it; in Maharashtra that is MahaRERA. Most buyers know the Act exists. Far fewer know which section gives them which right, which matters the moment a developer says "that is not how it works". Here are the five that come up most, with the section number you can quote.

1. No more than 10% of the price before a registered agreement (Section 13)

Section 13(1) says a promoter "shall not accept a sum more than ten per cent of the cost of the apartment, plot, or building, as the case may be, as an advance payment or an application fee, from a person without first entering into a written agreement for sale with such person and register the said agreement for sale". The agreement must spell out the project particulars, the payment schedule, the possession date and the interest payable by either side on default (Section 13(2)).

This is not a technicality. On 7 September 2026 the Maharashtra Real Estate Appellate Tribunal, in Manojkumar Singh v. Era Realtors Pvt. Ltd., dealt with a buyer who had booked a flat in 2014 for ₹2.77 crore and paid ₹1.008 crore, more than 30% of the price, without the developer ever executing an agreement for sale. The developer kept demanding instalments and eventually cancelled the allotment for "non-payment". The Tribunal set the cancellation aside, ordered a refund of ₹80.77 lakh with interest at 2% above the State Bank of India's highest marginal cost of funds lending rate, imposed a ₹10 lakh penalty on the developer under Section 61 for breaching Section 13, and awarded ₹50,000 in costs. The point for buyers: if you have paid more than 10% and have no registered agreement, the developer is already in breach, and demands for further instalments do not stand.

2. The project must be registered before it is sold to you (Section 3)

Section 3(1) bars a promoter from advertising, marketing, booking, selling or offering for sale any apartment or plot in a project without registering the project with the state authority. The only general exemptions are small projects: land under 500 square metres or fewer than eight apartments (Section 3(2)(a)), and projects that already had a completion certificate when the Act commenced. A "pre-launch" or "soft launch" offer for an unregistered project is therefore an offer the promoter is not allowed to make. The registration number should appear on every advertisement, and the project page on the MahaRERA portal shows the sanctioned plans, the promoter's track record, the declared completion date and quarterly progress updates (Section 11).

3. Seventy per cent of your money stays with the project (Section 4(2)(l)(D))

As a condition of registration, the promoter must deposit 70% of the amounts realised from buyers in a separate bank account, to be used only for the land and construction costs of that project. Withdrawals are released in proportion to the percentage of completion, certified by an engineer, an architect and a chartered accountant. It is the rule that stops money from your project funding the developer's next launch. It does not guarantee delivery, but it gives the regulator an audit trail and gives you a question to ask: which bank holds the project account?

4. The plans cannot change without the consent of two-thirds of buyers (Section 14)

Once the plans and specifications are sanctioned and disclosed to you, the promoter must build according to them. Section 14(2) allows only minor additions or alterations that a buyer asks for or that an architect certifies as necessary. Any other alteration to the sanctioned plans, layout, specifications or common areas needs the previous written consent of at least two-thirds of the allottees. If the tower you booked into gains four extra floors or loses its garden, that consent should exist in writing.

5. If possession is late: refund with interest, or interest for every month of delay (Sections 18 and 19)

Section 18(1) gives the buyer a choice when the promoter fails to hand over possession by the date in the agreement. A buyer who wants to leave is entitled, on demand, to the return of the amount paid with interest at the prescribed rate, plus compensation. A buyer who stays is entitled, under the proviso, to interest for every month of delay until possession is handed over. Section 19(4) states the same entitlement from the buyer's side. The Supreme Court, in Newtech Promoters and Developers v. State of Uttar Pradesh (2021), described the refund right under Section 18(1) as unconditional and the buyer's to exercise.

The interest rate is set by each state's rules. Maharashtra's rules fix it at the State Bank of India's highest marginal cost of funds lending rate plus 2%, which is also the rate the Tribunal applied in the Era Realtors order above. Other states use similar formulas; check your state's RERA rules rather than a figure quoted online.

How to use these rights

Complaints go to the state authority under Section 31; any aggrieved person may file one for a violation of the Act, the rules or the regulations. MahaRERA accepts complaints online with a filing fee, and the authority can order refunds, interest and compensation, and penalise the promoter. Appeals go to the Appellate Tribunal, as in the Era Realtors case, and then to the High Court. Buyers who do not want to withdraw from a project can still complain for delay interest while staying in it.

Three habits save most of the trouble: look up the project on the MahaRERA portal before paying anything; refuse to pay beyond 10% until the agreement for sale is registered; and keep every receipt, letter and allotment document, because in the Era Realtors case it was the allotment letter and receipts that proved a concluded contract existed.