Is a Deviated Building Safe to Buy? Bangalore's 15 Percent Tolerance Explained

A flat can look flawless on a site visit and still carry a legal gap, because the building around it may have grown past what the city approved. In 2026 Bangalore's authorities proposed to accept far more variation than before and to let owners settle old breaches in one go. This guide shows how to grade a deviation by seriousness, what the new numbers say and which documents protect a buyer in Bangalore.

Grade the deviation first

Any gap between a building and its sanctioned plan falls into one of three grades, and the grade tells a buyer what must happen before the purchase is clean:

• Inside the tolerance: the authority can issue an occupancy certificate (OC) once it accepts the measurements
• Over the tolerance but covered by the settlement scheme: the owner has to apply, clear scrutiny and pay before the problem disappears
• Outside every scheme, such as an additional floor or a serious setback breach: the defect remains, and bank loans and resale keep suffering

Eligibility is not a cure. Until the owner has filed, paid and holds the final order, even a regularisable breach remains a live problem.

Why the OC matters

The sanctioned plan lays down the height, the setbacks (open space around the building) and the floor area ratio (FAR). Should the finished structure drift beyond the tolerance, its OC may be refused, and the OC is what clears a building for residents. The old tolerance was 5%.

Banks hesitate to lend on homes without an OC, and the next buyer meets the same hesitation. The state added a reminder when it unveiled the reform in May 2026: the Supreme Court has directed that such buildings should not receive power or water connections.

Estimates from the GBA (Greater Bengaluru Authority) put the number of properties without an OC at 300,000 to 350,000, all due to this reason. The matter is mainstream, and not a niche one.

The April 2026 draft

An amendment to the city corporation's building bye-laws was drafted on 1 April 2026, and the GBA took objections up to 30 April 2026. The 15% headline covers only some limits. The proposals were:

• Setbacks: 15% in total, with at most half of the required setback lost on any single side
• FAR: 15% for buildings below 15 metres on plots of 500 sq m or less, but just 5% for taller buildings on bigger plots
• Height: 7.5% for every category
• Additional floors: left out of regularisation

The penalty basis also shifts. The fee would be a share of the guidance value of the portion built in excess, in place of construction cost: 3% to 10% for homes and 6% to 12% for commercial buildings.

The announcement of 13 May 2026

Deputy CM D.K. Shivakumar paired the wider tolerance with a once-only settlement for existing breaches in his 13 May 2026 statement. Applications were to begin from 15 June 2026 and continue about three months. Anyone filing in that period was promised half off the charges.

Scrutiny and payment follow, and OCs are then issued where the building falls within the limit. The government wants everything wrapped up by June 2027. The limits for a given building will come from the bye-laws as finally notified and from the scheme rules, which deserve a full read before any figure here is relied on.

Documents to demand on a resale home

The reform helps owners with small breaches, and it hands sellers a new talking point too. These are the items to request from them:

1. Both the OC and the sanctioned plan, with the plan number confirmed by the approving office.
2. A report from an architect or engineer that sets the standing building against the plan and states the deviation as a percentage.
3. A physical inspection for signs of trouble, from a new floor and a built-over setback to a wider footprint and parking converted into shops or rooms.
4. Where regularisation is claimed, the filed application, proof of the fee paid and the order itself.
5. A written clause fixing who pays the penalty if the process is incomplete, or a price cut that covers it.
6. A word from your bank, early, on whether it funds that building.

Khata is a separate question. Upgrading a B-khata to an A-khata fixes the property record, and only regularisation fixes the building, so a home can pass one test and fail the other.

Under-construction flats

Here the risk is the construction that follows your booking. A wider tolerance describes what the city may accept, and it does not entitle a developer to alter the home sold. Protection comes from the plan sanctioned for the project and from the agreement for sale.

Choose a project on the Karnataka RERA register, go through the approvals shown there and insist that handover depends on a valid OC. If what you receive differs from the approved plan or the sale agreement, both the contract and RERA give remedies. Shoppers for new launches in Whitefield can request the sanctioned plan along with the price list.

Market effect

Where the scheme succeeds, some older buildings become easy for banks to fund, and resale gets simpler. Only the buildings that complete the process gain. For help with approvals on a specific property, talk to our team before paying any advance.