With a booming realestate market in chennai, its a logical fallout that there would be illegal constructions, especially flat promoters who build extra floors illegally. In my street, i remember a case when an entire floor was unauthorised construction and CMDA decide to demolish it, the flat owners went to court and had to get it regularised, because the promoter hadnt informed them that the floors were unauthorised.

To tackle this menace, the Madras High Court issued an order than a flat owner needs a Completion Certificate to obtain water and power connections, which flat owners can demand if they need to know about the status of their flat.

Thus anyone aspiring to buy a flat or a house will have to just demand from the builder/promoter the Completion Certificate to know whether a building has been constructed as per the sanctioned plan. Going by the judgement, only buildings, which fully comply with the sanctioned plan without any deviation will get a Completion Certificate. Only after this, can a builder apply and seek power and water connections for the new structure. In fact, the very occupation of the building itself shall be “contingent on the Completion Certificate.” Via

and in the case of land, the buyer can demand a Non- Encumbrance certificate to ensure they dont encounter any problems at a future date.