Why Completed Flats Waited for Keys: E-Khata and Occupancy Certificate Delays in Bangalore

When a city reorganises its civic body, the effect can reach a flat buyer standing outside a finished tower with the keys not yet in hand. Something like this occurred in Bangalore after September 2025. The pages that follow trace the delay in one developer's published results, show how two documents decide the handover date and list what a buyer should confirm before the last instalment is paid.

A Developer's Results Tell the Story

A new set of civic bodies replaced the BBMP on 2 September 2025: the Greater Bengaluru Authority with five city corporations. Offices dealing with just-completed buildings then moved slowly on approvals and for occupancy certificates and e-khatas. The listed company Shriram Properties, with many projects in the city, blamed that for weaker handovers across two middle quarters of FY26.

In its October to December 2025 report, the company said it had no more trouble with occupancy certificates. Trouble remained in the e-khata system, so projects freshly built could not be handed to buyers. As revenue counts only at handover, the income fell into a later quarter.

The full-year figures, sent to the exchanges on 25 May 2026, looked healthier:

• Rs. 2,354 Crore of sales bookings, covering nearly 42 lakh sq ft
• Rs. 1,356.9 Crore in revenue, a 39% increase over the previous year
• Profit after tax that crossed Rs. 100 Crore for the first time, at Rs. 100.8 Crore
• A record number of handovers in the last quarter, in Kolkata as well as Bangalore

So the bulk of the postponed handovers were done, and by then the company described the processes for e-khatas, certificates and registrations as normal. The buyer's lesson is in the sequence, because a flat that looked complete still waited for paperwork.

How Two Documents Set the Handover Date

Within the city corporation area, a new flat reaches its owner only after four things occur in order:

• Occupancy certificate: granted by the corporation once the building is shown to follow the sanctioned plan and to be safe to live in
• E-khata: created for each flat in the corporation's register of properties
• Registration: the sale deed is presented to the sub-registrar along with the e-khata particulars
• Possession: keys change hands and the buyer applies to have the khata moved to their name

For city properties, the final e-khata became compulsory for registration in October 2024. In a new block the developer arranges the flats' e-khatas once the occupancy certificate is received. A hold-up in either of the first two items freezes all that follows, however finished the building seems.

What Waiting Costs a Household

Companies can roll revenue into the next quarter, while households have little room to manoeuvre. A late handover means rent on the old home as well as the new loan's EMI, a final bank tranche left unreleased, and school places, interiors and the move itself pushed back.

Numbers help here. Say a flat costs Rs. 80 Lakhs and the buyer puts down 20%, so the borrowing is Rs. 64 Lakhs, and a 20-year term at 8.5% gives an EMI close to Rs. 55,500. Rent and EMI for three months together call for a cushion, and the EMI calculator handles other amounts.

RERA and the Delay

The date promised in the registered sale agreement is the benchmark. If delivery runs beyond it, a buyer who remains is owed monthly interest under section 18 of the RERA Act, and one who prefers to go may claim the money back with interest.

In section 6, force majeure means events like war, floods, drought, fire, cyclones, earthquakes and kindred natural calamities. Slow paperwork at civic offices is absent from the list, and each complaint goes before Karnataka RERA to be judged on its facts.

Two further provisions apply once the building is complete. The buyer, says section 19(10), should take possession inside two months from the occupancy certificate. The developer, says section 17, should complete the registered conveyance within three months of it, though local law may set another period.

Checks Before the Final Payment

Put these points to the developer:

• Ask to read the occupancy certificate and see which towers and floors it names
• Make sure your own flat has an e-khata, and note its property ID
• Look at which register the entry belongs to, hoping for the A register
• Hold the agreement's possession date against the project's completion date on the state RERA website
• Ask for a payment schedule in which the final instalment falls due when the deed is registered
• Tell your bank the date registration is expected, so that the last release does not stall
• Avoid renewing a long rental before a registration slot has been fixed

Refuse any possession offered ahead of the occupancy certificate. Such a flat lacks an e-khata and a registered deed, and the buyer carries whatever risk plan deviations bring. Wait instead for a letter of possession in writing, showing the certificate number and its date.

The Takeaway

Handovers are reported to be moving again, which makes this a transition problem and not a permanent flaw. It nevertheless showed that completing a building differs from completing a sale, and government offices affect the second as much as the builder does.

Between two nearly finished projects, the one holding its certificate and the flat e-khatas can go to registration without delay. The other, built but still waiting, brings a timing risk that the budget must leave room for.