A completion certificate in Delhi is the municipal record that a building was finished as sanctioned and may be occupied. On reputable South Delhi floors the certificate is almost always there; the buyer’s real job is to confirm it is genuine, that it covers the floor being bought, and that nothing was added after it was issued. Here is how we check all three.
A completion certificate in Delhi is, under the Unified Building Bye-Laws for Delhi 2016, formally the Occupancy-cum-Completion Certificate (OCC), issued by the sanctioning authority — the MCD for most South Delhi colonies — on Form D-1 after the owner files a notice of completion with as-built drawings and a structural safety certificate. It certifies that the building was completed in line with the sanctioned plan and that it may be occupied; the bye-laws prohibit occupation before it is granted. To verify one, take the sanction file number from the certificate, match it on the MCD online building permit records, confirm the plot number, owner and floors match the sanctioned plan and your sale documents, and then walk the building against the as-built drawings — basement, stilt, terrace and every floor. The usual problem is a genuine certificate that no longer matches the building.
We see the completion certificate in Delhi on nearly every new floor we sell. Reputable builders whose floors trade in GK-1, Defence Colony, Vasant Vihar or Panchsheel Park (typically ₹6–15 crore, in our desk’s experience) obtain it as a matter of course. This guide covers what it proves, how to confirm it is real and relates to this building, and what to do when the building has changed since. For the earlier document — the sanction itself — read our guide to building plan sanction in Delhi.
Older Delhi practice spoke of a separate completion certificate and occupancy certificate. The Unified Building Bye-Laws for Delhi 2016 (UBBL), which apply to the MCD, NDMC and DDA, merged them into a single document: the Occupancy-cum-Completion Certificate. When a buyer, a bank or a broker in South Delhi says “CC” or “OC”, this is the document they mean.
The owner, through the architect or engineer on record, files a notice of completion with as-built plans, photographs, a lift certificate where relevant and a structural safety certificate. Agencies whose NOC is needed have 15 days to respond or it is deemed issued. The authority intimates any compounding fee, then grants the certificate on Form D-1 or refuses it on Form D-2.
Three provisions matter most to a buyer:
Occupation is prohibited without it. Clause 2.7.2 of the UBBL says no building or part of a building shall be occupied until it has been granted the OCC. The same clause lists what must be finished: flooring, electrical wiring, plumbing and fittings in at least one toilet and the kitchen, lockable external doors and windows, and a name and number plate. Plastering and light fittings are not mandatory — which is why a certificate can predate the builder’s final finishing.
Deemed grant. If the authority does not decide within the prescribed time (no more than 30 days), the OCC is deemed to have been issued once the fees are paid. A deemed OCC, however, does not legalise anything that breaches the lease terms, the Master Plan or the bye-laws.
Under the UBBL risk matrix (Table 3.1), a residential building below 15 m is “very low risk” on a plot up to 105 sq m and “low risk” on a plot above 105 and up to 500 sq m; for both, the architect or engineer on record inspects and reports for the OCC. Plots above 500 sq m are “moderate risk”, with a 20-day OCC limit. How height is measured on a stilt-plus-four building, and how many floors that allows, is covered in our guide to floors and FAR allowed in South Delhi.
The completion certificate does not stand alone. It closes a file that opened with the sanctioned building plan, and its value depends on whether the sanction, the certificate and the building on the ground tell the same story. This table is how we read a South Delhi floor’s file.
| Document | What it proves | Where to check |
|---|---|---|
| Sanctioned building plan and permit | What the authority allowed to be built: floors, coverage, setbacks, basement, stilt, height, and the date the permit runs from | MCD online building permit records by file number; the digitally signed permit and approved drawings |
| Occupancy-cum-Completion Certificate (Form D-1) | That the authority accepted the building as completed in line with the sanction (with any compounded deviations) and permitted occupation | The same MCD file; the certificate’s file number, plot number, owner name and date should match the permit |
| As-built drawings filed with the OCC | The building as it stood on the day the certificate was applied for | The builder’s or architect’s copy of the completion submission; compare to the site |
| Compounding receipts, if any | That specific deviations were regularised on payment, and which ones | MCD demand note and payment receipt referenced in the OCC file |
| Collaboration agreement and floor allocation | Which floors belong to the owner and which to the builder | Registered agreement; see our guide to builder collaboration agreements |
The gap we find most often is not between sanction and certificate — those usually match on reputable floors — but between the certificate and the building a few years later.
We run these steps on every floor before an agreement to sell is signed. They slot into the wider builder floor buying checklist.
Ask for the OCC and the sanction with approved drawings as one set. Note the file number, plot, applicant and both dates; the certificate should postdate the sanction and fall within the permit’s validity.
Search the file number through the MCD’s Ease of Doing Business portal, which links to its online building plan approval system and to public lists of released plans, plinth inspections and completion certificates. Status, plot and applicant should match the paper. For an older file not fully online, the architect on record can obtain a certified copy from the zonal building department. A certificate that cannot be traced to a file is not one we close on.
The owner on the sanction should be the owner of record on the title chain — usually the plot owner in a collaboration — and the plot number and colony should match the sale deed and the mutation record. A mismatch is often innocent but must be explained in writing.
Basement, stilt, ground, first, second, third, terrace: the sanction and the certificate should show the same storeys as the building. Check the height of the stilt, whether the basement is shown as parking, storage and services, and what the drawings allow on the roof.
Look for what was not there at certification: a terrace room, an enclosed stilt, a basement fitted out as a flat, a grown balcony.
Ask whether any deviation was compounded at the completion stage and for the receipt. Ask, in writing, whether any MCD notice, booking for unauthorised construction, or sealing action has ever been issued against the property. Put the answer in the agreement as a representation.
With a loan, the bank’s technical valuer compares the building to the sanction anyway; ask for the finding. Without one, hire an independent architect for a half-day check.
The certificate is a snapshot of the building, and its sanctioned uses, on the day it was certified.
A basement within the ground-floor footprint is generally kept out of FAR when used for parking, household storage and services. A certificate showing those uses does not make a rented basement flat a sanctioned use; read the sanction’s description of the basement, not the brochure’s.
The stilt is defined as a non-habitable portion above ground with at least two open sides, for parking and landscaping. Enclosing it with walls, shutters or a guard room beyond what was sanctioned is a change after the certificate. Who owns which parking bay is a separate question, answered by the agreement — see our guide to terrace, stilt and basement rights.
The roof may carry what the bye-laws allow, such as the stair cover (mumty), lift machine room and water tanks. A pergola that becomes a room is not covered by the OCC unless it was sanctioned and certified. On a top floor sold with terrace rights, this is the most important check.
Anything built after the certificate — an extra room, a covered balcony, an extended slab, a projection over the setback — sits outside it. The certificate remains valid for what it covered; the addition is unauthorised until it is regularised, if it can be.
Moving non-structural partitions or changing finishes inside a floor generally does not affect the certificate. Cutting columns, beams or slabs is a different matter — an engineering question, which is why we ask for the structural engineer’s details.
Practically every reputable builder in South Delhi gets the completion certificate. What I check is whether the floor I am selling is still the floor that certificate describes.
In a South Delhi transaction it does five practical jobs.
Since the Delhi High Court’s orders on housing loans, passed on by the RBI in its circular of 17 November 2006 and carried into its consolidated housing-finance instructions since, a borrower buying built property declares on affidavit that it was built to the sanctioned plan and bye-laws, and an architect appointed by the bank certifies it before disbursement; construction-loan borrowers undertake to obtain the completion certificate within three months of completion. Expect the lender to ask for the OCC; our home loan guide for builder floors covers the rest of the file.
Under the GST law, the sale of a building is outside GST, except where any part of the consideration is received before the completion certificate is issued (where one is required) or before first occupation, whichever is earlier. In plain terms: a floor bought from the builder with the entire price paid after the OCC carries no GST; a floor booked and paid for in instalments during construction does. The rates and the arithmetic are in our guide to GST on under-construction property.
If you book a floor before completion, the certificate is the milestone your agreement should tie possession and the final payment to. We advise buyers to make the OCC a condition precedent to the last instalment and to the handover, as set out in our guide to booking an under-construction builder floor; the possession questions that follow are answered in our possession FAQ.
For electricity, the Delhi regulator’s connection procedure asks for a declaration that the building conforms to the bye-laws, and a fire clearance certificate only for units in residential buildings above 15 m, or 17.5 m with stilt parking (DERC explanatory note). Discom and Delhi Jal Board document lists change from time to time; in our desk experience the completion certificate is what makes permanent connections uneventful.
The next buyer’s bank will ask the same questions. A floor with an unexplained terrace room sells at a discount, or after a delay.
An illustrative case: stilt-plus-four on a 300 sq yd plot, OCC issued in 2025. The certificate traces to the MCD file and matches the sanction. On site, the second floor is as drawn, but the stilt has a closed store the as-built drawings do not show. The floor is clean; the common area is not. The store is reopened before registry, the bank disburses on the OCC and its valuer’s report, and because the entire price is paid after the certificate, the sale carries no GST.
Deviations fall into two kinds under the bye-laws. Compoundable deviations are those within the limits the UBBL lists for compounding; they can be regularised on application to the MCD and payment of the compounding fee, which is how many small differences are settled at the completion stage itself. Non-compoundable deviations are those beyond the permissible or compoundable limits; the bye-laws leave them open to action including demolition, sealing or prosecution, and they cannot be fixed by paying a fee. The architect on record — not the seller — should tell you in writing which side of the line a deviation is on.
In Anijay Tyagi v. MCD (W.P.(C) 6522/2025, order of 15 May 2025), the Delhi High Court, faced with a demolition order, directed the MCD to list the deviations, the owner to remove them or apply to regularise the compoundable ones, and left the MCD free to act on any non-compoundable deviation that remained. That is the order of play: identify, remove or regularise, then sell.
Minor and removable — removed before registry. Compoundable — regularised before registry, or a retention held until the receipt is produced. Non-compoundable, in your floor — we do not close until it is removed. Non-compoundable, elsewhere in the building — a call for your lawyer and bank, because action against one part can affect the whole building.
Send us the floor and the file. We trace the certificate to the MCD record, read it against the sanction and the title, and walk the building with you — basement to terrace — before the agreement to sell is signed.
Sources: Unified Building Bye-Laws for Delhi 2016 (DDA compendium as amended) — clauses 2.4, 2.6, 2.7 (Forms D-1 and D-2, deemed OCC), 2.9 and Table 3.1; Schedule II para 5(b) and Schedule III para 5, CGST Act, 2017; RBI circular DBOD.Dir.BC.No.43/08.12.01/2006-07 of 17 November 2006 and the RBI Master Circular on Housing Finance; DERC explanatory note; Delhi High Court, W.P.(C) 6522/2025, 15 May 2025. Market observations, the worked example and our handling of deviations are SouthDelhiFloors desk observations as of October 2026. Compoundable limits change by amendment; confirm them with the architect on record, verify current provisions with the MCD and take legal advice before buying.
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