Builder changed the sanctioned plan after you booked? RERA section 14(2) and when your consent is needed

Rules and rates as of 20 October 2026.

You booked a flat off a plan: a certain layout, a clubhouse, a garden where the brochure showed one. Two years later the builder writes that the plan has been "revised". Can it do that without asking you?

Section 14 of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 (RERA) sets out when a builder needs your consent, when it needs two-thirds of the buyers, and the narrow room it has to make small changes on its own. This explainer reads the section, sets out what two High Courts have done with it, and works through the counting with numbers. It is not legal advice.

The starting rule

Section 14(1) says the project "shall be developed and completed by the promoter in accordance with the sanctioned plans, layout plans and specifications as approved by the competent authorities".

Section 14(2) begins "Notwithstanding anything contained in any law, contract or agreement". Once the sanctioned plans, specifications, fixtures, amenities and common areas have been disclosed to you, the builder "shall not make" two kinds of change without consent. Because of those opening words, a clause in your agreement that hands the builder a free hand to change plans cannot override the section.

Changes to your own flat: your consent

Under section 14(2)(i), additions and alterations to the plans and specifications of the apartment you have agreed to take need "the previous consent of that person", meaning you.

A proviso allows two kinds of "minor" change without that consent:

• minor changes you yourself ask for; and
• minor changes "necessary due to architectural and structural reasons", but only if "duly recommended and verified by an authorised Architect or Engineer after proper declaration and intimation to the allottee".

An Explanation then closes the obvious loophole. "Minor additions or alterations" exclude any "structural change including an addition to the area or change in height", removing part of a building, cutting into or removing a wall, column, beam or floor, changing a required means of access, or changing fixtures or equipment. A change to your flat's area is therefore never "minor" under this clause.

Changes to the building or common areas: two-thirds

Section 14(2)(ii) covers "any other alterations or additions" to the plans of the buildings or to "the common areas within the project". These need "the previous written consent of at least two-thirds of the allottees, other than the promoter, who have agreed to take apartments in such building".

Three details matter:

• It must be written and must come first. "Previous written consent" rules out silence, and rules out consent collected after the work is done.
• The builder's unsold flats do not vote. The count is of allottees "other than the promoter".
• One allottee, one vote. The Explanation says a person, family, company or group of associated entities counts as "one allottee only", however many flats it has booked.

What the courts have said

Madras High Court, April 2024. In Chennai Hiranandani Residents Welfare Association v. Secretary, Housing and Urban Development Department (W.A. No. 3328 of 2023, decided 8 April 2024), a Division Bench quashed a revised planning approval of 19 November 2020 that altered a township's clubhouse block. It called section 14(2)(ii) "a clear and categorical embargo" on additions and alterations once agreements are signed. It held that the clubhouse was a common area, that a general clause in the sale agreement was not consent to alter it, and that the law requires "the coming together of two-thirds of the owners" rather than individual consents. The approval failed because it lacked two-thirds consent in each of the seven buildings concerned. The developer could seek that consent and reapply.

That ruling is not the last word. A later Madras High Court judgment in a related petition (W.P. No. 7341 of 2026, 30 April 2026) records that the developer, Hiranandani Realtors, took the case to the Supreme Court in SLP(C) No. 29239 of 2024. It says the Supreme Court ordered status quo on 2 December 2024 and, on 23 April 2025, restrained the developer from seeking any further modification of the sanctioned plan, and that the appeal was still pending. We could not check those orders on the Supreme Court's own site, so treat the Supreme Court position as unconfirmed.

Punjab and Haryana High Court, April 2025. In Parveen Gambhir v. Union of India (CWP No. 23526 of 2021, decided 1 April 2025), the court spoke of a "preemptory statutory necessity of adherence being made to the sanctioned plans". It also held that RERA does not vest the regulator with power to order demolition; that power lies with municipal and town-planning authorities under their own laws. So a RERA complaint can stop or penalise a change, but tearing down an unauthorised structure is usually a matter for the local planning body.

A worked example

The figures are illustrative. A project has three towers with 90, 75 and 60 allottees (225 in all, excluding unsold stock). The builder wants to turn a landscaped garden, a common area, into a parking block.

Tower	Allottees	Two-thirds needed	Consents obtained	Met?
A	90	60	70	Yes
B	75	50	60	Yes
C	60	40	38	No
Total	225	150	168	-

Across the whole project, 168 consents beat two-thirds of 225 (150). But the section counts allottees "in such building", and the Madras High Court applied the test building by building. On that reading, Tower C falls short by 2, and the change fails there.

Now a change to your own flat. Say you agreed to buy 850 sq ft of carpet area at ₹12,000 per sq ft, a price of 850 × ₹12,000 = ₹1,02,00,000. A revised plan shows 820 sq ft. At the same rate that is 820 × ₹12,000 = ₹98,40,000, a gap of ₹3,60,000, or 3.53% of the flat. Because an area change is excluded from "minor", this needs your own prior consent under section 14(2)(i). What you are owed if it happens anyway depends on your agreement and the regulator, so take it to a lawyer.

How to respond to a "revised plan" letter

1. Compare the new plan with the one on the project's RERA registration page and in your agreement. List exactly what changes.
2. Decide which clause applies: your own flat (your consent), or the building and common areas (two-thirds written consent).
3. If the builder calls it "minor", ask for the authorised architect's or engineer's recommendation and declaration the proviso requires.
4. Do not sign a general consent you have not read. A signed consent can be held against you later.
5. Work with other buyers or your association; the count is per building.
6. If a change goes ahead without the consent the Act requires, a complaint to your state RERA authority is the usual route. Speak to a lawyer first.