In a major tightening of regulations for real estate developers, the Haryana government has introduced steep penalties of up to Rs 50 lakh for delays in filing Deeds of Declaration under the Haryana Apartment Ownership Act, 1983.
The new penalty structure was notified by the Town and Country Planning Department through a memo dated May 5, 2026, following amendments introduced under the Haryana Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Act, 2025.
Under the revised norms, builders and colonisers who fail to file the mandatory Deed of Declaration within 90 days of obtaining a completion or occupation certificate will now face hefty financial penalties depending on the duration of the delay.
The government has fixed penalties at Rs 10 lakh for delays up to 60 days, Rs 20 lakh for delays between 60 and 90 days, Rs 30 lakh for delays up to 120 days, Rs 40 lakh for delays up to 150 days, and Rs 50 lakh for delays extending beyond 150 days up to 180 days.
Officials said the new provisions have been made effective retrospectively from October 30, 2025, the date on which the ordinance came into force.
The government has also made it clear that the penalties will automatically escalate by 10 percent every three years under the provisions of the amended law. Further, unpaid penalties will be recoverable as arrears of land revenue.
The order also addresses transitional cases involving projects where builders had already defaulted before the ordinance came into force. In such cases, developers will have to pay penalties under the old composition policy dated January 7, 2013, for the period before October 30, 2025, and under the new penalty regime for delays thereafter.
Illustrating the new framework, the department noted that if a builder obtained an occupation certificate on June 1, 2025, but failed to file the Deed of Declaration within the stipulated 90-day period ending August 30, 2025, and eventually filed it on February 1, 2026, the builder would have to pay Rs 1 lakh under the old policy for the pre-ordinance delay period and an additional Rs 30 lakh for the remaining 94 days of delay under the new provisions.
The government further clarified that once the prescribed penalty is paid, the offense under Section 2 of the Act would be treated as compounded under Section 24-C after issuance of an order by the Director, Town and Country Planning Department.
With the issuance of the latest order, the earlier policy of January 7, 2013, has been formally repealed with effect from October 30, 2025. As per the 2013 policy, a 1-year delay carried a penalty of Rs 1 lakh. For delays of more than 1 year but up to 2 years, the penalty was Rs 2 lakh. For more than two years and up to three years, it was Rs 2 lakh. And for further delays, it was Rs 3 lakh plus Rs 50,000 per month.
