6.2 Building Approvals: IOD, Commencement Certificate & Occupancy Certificate
Key Takeaways
- In Greater Mumbai the approval chain starts with an Intimation of Disapproval (IOD) issued under Section 346 of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act 1888, which lists the conditions to be satisfied before construction may begin.
- The Commencement Certificate is granted under Sections 44 and 45 of the Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Act 1966, is valid for one year, and may be renewed year by year to a maximum of three years.
- Every Commencement Certificate carries the standard condition that no part of the building may be occupied until the Occupancy Certificate is granted.
- "CC" is ambiguous: on site it means Commencement Certificate, but in RERA Section 2(q) and the Section 3(2)(b) exemption it means Completion Certificate — read which one the question is about.
- A part Occupancy Certificate covers only the wings and floors named in it, so an agent must confirm that the specific flat being sold falls inside its scope before calling the unit ready for possession.
6.2 Building Approvals: IOD, Commencement Certificate & Occupancy Certificate
Quick Summary: Section 6.1 established who owns the land. This section establishes whether anything may lawfully be built on it and whether what has been built may lawfully be occupied. Title due diligence and approval due diligence are two separate exercises, and an agent who checks only the first can still walk a client into an unauthorised structure.
1. Why Approvals Are the Agent's Problem
Section 10(a) of the RERA Act bars an agent from facilitating a sale in a project that is required to be registered but is not. Registration, however, is not a certificate of legality — MahaRERA registers a project on the strength of the promoter's own Section 4(2) uploads. What those uploads contain is exactly the approval chain below, and an agent is expected to open them rather than take the promoter's word.
The practical failure mode is a project that is genuinely RERA-registered but is selling floors for which no Commencement Certificate has yet been endorsed. The registration is real; the sanction to build those floors is not.
2. Step One — Intimation of Disapproval (IOD), Greater Mumbai Only
In Greater Mumbai the Municipal Corporation issues an Intimation of Disapproval (IOD) under Section 346 of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act, 1888. Despite its discouraging name, an IOD is a forward step: it is the corporation formally intimating that it cannot yet approve the proposal, followed by the list of conditions the developer must satisfy before work may start.
- The conditions are grouped into those to be complied with before starting work, before the plinth, before further construction, and before Occupancy.
- Typical conditions involve the Tree Authority, the Hydraulic Engineer, the Chief Fire Officer, structural design approval, and drainage.
- An IOD is generally valid for one year and is revalidated while the developer clears conditions.
Outside Greater Mumbai there is normally no separate IOD stage — the planning authority moves straight to sanctioning the building permission and Commencement Certificate.
3. Step Two — Development Permission & Commencement Certificate (CC)
Across Maharashtra, the developer applies for development permission under Section 44 of the Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Act, 1966, and the planning authority grants or refuses it under Section 45. The grant is issued as a Commencement Certificate.
Four conditions printed on the certificate itself are examinable:
- Validity: the Commencement Certificate remains valid for one year from the date of issue.
- Renewal: it is renewable year by year, but the extended period shall in no case exceed three years; a lapse does not bar a fresh Section 44 application.
- Occupation bar: no new building or part thereof shall be occupied until occupancy permission has been granted.
- Revocation: the Municipal Commissioner may revoke the certificate if the work departs from the sanctioned plans or any condition is contravened.
Plinth CC and Further CC
A Commencement Certificate is commonly granted first up to plinth level, then endorsed upward in stages — "further CC up to the 12th floor slab", and so on. This matters commercially, because the Model Agreement's payment ladder in clause 1(c) is tied to construction milestones. An agent should match the latest CC endorsement against the milestone the promoter is invoicing. A demand for the 70 per cent slab milestone on a project holding only a plinth CC is a red flag.
4. Step Three — Occupancy Certificate (OC) and Completion Certificate
The Occupancy Certificate is issued by the competent planning authority once construction is complete and the licensed architect's completion documents, along with the clearances the IOD or sanction demanded, have been submitted and verified. RERA defines it at Section 2(zf) as the certificate permitting occupation, and defines the completion certificate separately at Section 2(q) as certifying that the project has been developed according to the sanctioned plans.
Part OC. Where a layout has several wings, an authority may issue a part Occupancy Certificate covering specified wings or floors. A part OC does not make the whole project ready. Before telling a buyer that possession can be taken, confirm the flat's wing and floor are named in the part OC.
The "CC" trap. On site, "CC" means Commencement Certificate. In the Act, "CC" in Section 3(2)(b) and Section 2(q) means Completion Certificate — the exemption there is for projects that had completed before the Act commenced, not for projects that had merely started. Exam items exploit this ambiguity routinely.
5. Which Rulebook Applies
| Area | Development control rules in force | Building permission issued under |
|---|---|---|
| Greater Mumbai (MCGM) | DCPR 2034 | MMC Act 1888 s.346 (IOD) + MRTP Act 1966 ss.44/45 (CC) |
| Most other Maharashtra planning authorities | UDCPR 2020 (Chapter 2: Development Permission and Commencement Certificate) | MRTP Act 1966 ss.44/45 |
| Specified excluded areas (e.g. certain special planning and notified areas) | Their own sanctioned regulations | MRTP Act 1966, read with the relevant special enactment |
UDCPR 2020 unified what had been a patchwork of municipal DCRs across the state; Greater Mumbai was kept outside it and continues under DCPR 2034.
6. The Agent's Approval Checklist
| Document | Issued by | What it proves | What to check |
|---|---|---|---|
| IOD (Mumbai) | MCGM, s.346 MMC Act 1888 | Conditions fixed for the proposal | Whether pre-plinth conditions are cleared |
| Commencement Certificate | Planning authority, ss.44/45 MRTP Act 1966 | Sanction to build | Date of issue, one-year validity, three-year outer limit, highest floor endorsed |
| Sanctioned plans & specifications | Planning authority | The design actually approved | Match against the layout being marketed (Section 14(1)) |
| Occupancy Certificate | Planning authority | The building may be occupied | Full or part; which wings and floors are covered |
| MahaRERA project page | Promoter's Section 4(2) uploads | The above, as declared to the regulator | Whether the portal copy matches the copy the promoter handed you |
Section 11(3)(a) obliges the promoter to make the sanctioned plans, layout plans and specifications available at the time of booking, and Section 19(1) gives the allottee a matching right to obtain them. Section 14(1) then binds the promoter to develop in accordance with those approved plans, with alterations governed by Section 14(2).
7. Practical Scenario
Scenario: Agent K is marketing 14th-floor flats in a MahaRERA-registered Mumbai tower. The promoter shows a valid IOD dated March 2024 and a Commencement Certificate dated April 2024 endorsed up to the 8th floor slab. The promoter is demanding the 70 per cent slab-completion milestone.
Analysis:
- Registration is genuine, so Section 10(a) is not breached by the fact of marketing the project.
- Sanction, however, extends only to the 8th floor. The 14th floor is not yet approved construction, and the 70 per cent milestone is tied to slabs that cannot lawfully exist yet.
- Agent K should require the further CC endorsement before facilitating bookings on those floors, and should record the point in writing. Rule 17 expects the agent to help the allottee exercise their rights; Section 12 makes the promoter liable for misleading representations that induce a booking.
- If the CC issued in April 2024 has not been renewed, note that it has also passed its one-year validity and must be revalidated — the outer limit of three years runs to April 2027.
Under which statute is an Intimation of Disapproval (IOD) issued for a building proposal in Greater Mumbai?
A Commencement Certificate granted under the Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Act, 1966 is valid for one year. For how long in total may it be renewed?
A promoter tells a buyer that the building has received a part Occupancy Certificate. What must the agent verify before telling the buyer that possession can be taken?