A document required to prove the legality of your flat and thereby saving you from all the possible litigations in the future known as the commencement certificate. It is as important as an occupancy certificate ensuring the buyer about the authorization from the local authorities. Even though the RERA Act, 2016 has mandated the developer to attach this certificate while filing an application for registration of the project. However, the buyers must know about the importance of having a commencement certificate.

 As per Section 2(m) of the RERA Act, 2016, "commencement certificate" means the commencement certificate or the construction permit, issued by the competent authority to allow or permit the promoter to begin the development works on immovable property, as per the sanctioned plan.

Some general points:
1. In order to begin a valid construction, the developer first needs to obtain the commencement certificate from the concerned local authorities of that particular state.
2. As per Section 4(2) (c) of the RERA Act, 2016, while filing an application for the registration of the project, the promoter shall enclose an authenticated copy of the approvals and commencement certificate from the competent authority obtained in accordance with the laws applicable for the real estate project.
2. A construction without this certificate shall be considered illegal and may attract penal proceedings. Therefore, must be aware of asking for this certificate before investing in any property as it indirectly questions your legal title to that property.
3. After the developer has submitted his plan for the project to the local authority, the municipal authority will begin conducting several preliminary checks to check whether it is suitable to grant such certificate.
4. The promoter shall also be liable to provide NOC (No-Objection Certificates) from relevant departments like the water department, sewage department, fire department, electricity department, etc.
5. This certificate is basically issued in 2 stages- first upto the plinth area and then finally for the superstructure.
6. After the results of the inspection conducted by the Town Planning and the Engineering departments and finally holding the required licenses and sanctions from the concerned departments, the certificate is issued.

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Tags:  project, sanctioned plan, certificate .