RERA section 18(1) · rule quoted · SBI MCLR read 2026-08-31

RERA Delay Compensation Calculator

If your builder has missed the possession date in your registered agreement for sale, section 18(1) entitles you to interest for every month of delay — on the amount you have paid the builder, not on the price of the flat. The rate is prescribed by your state’s RERA Rules; today’s verified figure is 10.80% a year, and the rule it comes from is quoted below the result.

Educational calculators — always consult a licensed professional before making financial decisions.

How much have you paid the builder so far?

The total of every instalment actually paid — not the agreement value of the flat.

₹

₹50K₹50Cr

How many months late is possession?

Count from the end of any grace period in your registered agreement, not from the headline date.

Tap to edit

1120

What annual interest rate applies?

Pre-filled at 10.8% — SBI's highest MCLR of 8.8% plus the statutory 2%.

0%30%

Interest for 18 months of delay

₹6.48 L

10.80% per annum on ₹40 L paid · ₹36,000 a month

Paid to the builder₹40 L

Interest per month₹36,000

Interest per year₹4,32,000

Interest over 18 months₹6,48,000

Paid + interest claimed₹46.48 L

The working, line by line

Amount paid × 10.80%₹4,32,000 a year

÷ 12 months₹36,000 a month

× 18 months of delay₹6,48,000

As a share of what you have paid16.20%

Simple interest, not compounded. Rule 17 states an annual rate and counts months of delay; it prescribes no rest and no capitalisation, and compounding it would inflate a long claim against a statute that does not authorise it. The interest is charged on what you have paid, not on the agreement value of the flat — on a ₹80 L flat with ₹40 L paid, running it on the flat’s value would produce ₹12,96,000 and the authority will not award it.

Where the rate comes from

The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 does not set the rate. Section 18(1) says the promoter must pay interest “for every month of delay, till the handing over of the possession, at such rate as may be prescribed”, and each state prescribes it in its own Rules under section 84.

The rate of interest payable by the promoter to the allottee or by the allottee to the promoter, as the case may be, shall be the State Bank of India highest marginal cost of lending rate plus two percent: Provided that in case the State Bank of India marginal cost of funds based lending rates is not in use it would be replaced by such benchmark lending rates which the State Bank of India may fix, from time to time, for lending to the general public.

Rule 17, Rajasthan Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Rules, 2017 — “Rate of interest payable by the promoter and the allottee”. Source: Rajasthan Rajpatra (Government Gazette), Part 6(Kha), 3 May 2017 — Urban Development & Housing Department, Government of Rajasthan (udh.rajasthan.gov.in) — read 2026-08-31.

Benchmark: State Bank of India — Marginal Cost of Funds Based Lending Rate (MCLR), tenor-wise, with effect from 15 August 2026: overnight 7.85%, one month 7.85%, three month 8.25%, six month 8.60%, one year 8.70%, two years 8.75%, three years 8.80%. Highest tenor is three years — the highest tenor on sbi's published mclr ladder at 8.80%, effective 2026-08-15. Source: sbi.co.in/web/interest-rates/interest-rates/mclr — checked 2026-08-31. The 10.80% above is that highest MCLR plus the statutory 2%.

One state’s Rules were read to source. Check yours.

The formula above is the one most state RERA Rules adopt, and the state whose text was actually read is named in the citation. Every other state is listed here rather than silently folded into the default — including one that is verifiably different.

West Bengaldifferent basis, verified — West Bengal prescribes a DIFFERENT benchmark and the default rate on this page does not apply there. Rule 17 of the West Bengal Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Rules reads: “The rate of interest payable under section 12, section 14, section 18 and section 19, as the case may be, shall be the prime lending rate of State Bank of India plus two percent.” That is the prime lending rate, not the marginal cost of lending rate, and the two are materially different numbers. Read 2026-08-31 from the Kolkata Gazette Extraordinary of 27 July 2021 (No. WB/SC-247), as published by the West Bengal Real Estate Regulatory Authority at rera.wb.gov.in. A West Bengal allottee should enter SBI's prime lending rate plus two percent in the rate field rather than accepting the default.
Uttar Pradesh — Not modelled, and deliberately not guessed. UP's own Rules 2016, published at up-rera.in, do carry a Rule 15 headed “Rate of interest payable by the promoter and the allottee” in Chapter V — but the text under that heading in the department's published PDF is a duplicate of the website-backup clause from the preceding rule, and a search of the whole document for “MCLR”, “Marginal Cost” or “State Bank” returns nothing. The rule exists; its operative text is not readable in the document the state publishes. That is inconclusive rather than a finding either way, so no UP rate is asserted here.
Maharashtra and Karnataka — maharera.maharashtra.gov.in and rera.karnataka.gov.in both refused connections from this build environment on 2026-08-31, so neither state's Rules were read to source. Secondary legal databases reproduce MahaRERA's Rule 18 in wording identical to Rajasthan's Rule 17, and that agreement is not treated as a citation here. Check your own state authority's Rules before relying on the default.
Every other state and union territory — RERA rules are made by each state under section 84 of the Act, so the multiplier is a state's own choice and there is no national rate. Only the state whose Rules are quoted above was read today.

What this figure does not include

The withdrawal limb of section 18(1). An allottee who withdraws is entitled to a refund of the amounts paid WITH INTEREST FROM THE DATE OF EACH PAYMENT — a separate interest run per instalment, which a single amount-paid figure and a single delay cannot express. This tool models the limb where the allottee stays and claims interest for every month of delay.
Compensation under section 18(3), which is a separate head from interest and is assessed by the adjudicating officer on the facts of the case under section 72.
Any grace period written into your registered agreement for sale. Builders commonly write in three to six months and those clauses are generally enforceable, so the delay you can claim runs from the end of the grace period, not from the headline possession date.
Whether the promoter is entitled to an extension of the registration under section 6, or to relief for force majeure, either of which can move the date the delay is measured from.

An estimate of the interest limb of section 18(1) on the figures you entered. What an authority actually awards depends on the registered agreement, the grace period in it, any extension granted to the promoter under section 6, and the facts of your case. Take it to a RERA-registered advocate before you file; do not treat it as the award.

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The formula, and the rate in force today

interest = amount paid × 10.80% × months ÷ 12

10.80% = SBI’s highest MCLR (8.80%, the three-year tenor, effective 2026-08-15) plus the statutory 2%. Simple interest, not compounded. SBI revises the ladder monthly and a RERA order applies the rate in force on its own date, so the rate field above is editable rather than fixed.

SBI’s MCLR ladder, effective 2026-08-15

Rule 17 says the highest marginal cost of lending rate, which is the longest tenor SBI publishes — not the one-year rate that most rate tables quote and that this page itself quoted until today.

SBI MCLR and the RERA rate — effective 2026-08-15

SBI MCLR tenor	Rate	RERA rate (MCLR + 2%)
Overnight	7.85%	9.85%
One month	7.85%	9.85%
Three months	8.25%	10.25%
Six months	8.60%	10.60%
One year	8.70%	10.70%
Two years	8.75%	10.75%
Three years — the highest, and the one Rule 17 points at	8.80%	10.80%

Source: sbi.co.in/web/interest-rates/interest-rates/mclr — State Bank of India’s own tenor-wise MCLR page, checked 2026-08-31. Your state’s Rules may prescribe a different benchmark; see below.

Worked examples at 10.80%

Section 18 interest at today's verified rate

Paid to the builder	Delay	Interest per month	Interest over the delay
₹30 L	12 months	₹27,000	₹3,24,000
₹50 L	12 months	₹45,000	₹5,40,000
₹75 L	18 months	₹67,500	₹12,15,000
₹1 Cr	24 months	₹90,000	₹21,60,000

Each row is the calculator’s own arithmetic on the amount paid, not on the agreement value. On ₹40 L paid and 18 months of delay the figure is ₹6,48,000; run against a ₹80 L agreement value it would be ₹12,96,000, and an authority will not award that.

Where the rate comes from, and which state’s rule was read

The Act itself sets no rate. Section 18(1) requires the promoter to pay interest “for every month of delay, till the handing over of the possession, at such rate as may be prescribed”, and section 84 leaves the prescribing to each state’s own Rules. The text read end-to-end for this page is:

The rate of interest payable by the promoter to the allottee or by the allottee to the promoter, as the case may be, shall be the State Bank of India highest marginal cost of lending rate plus two percent: Provided that in case the State Bank of India marginal cost of funds based lending rates is not in use it would be replaced by such benchmark lending rates which the State Bank of India may fix, from time to time, for lending to the general public.

The rate is not uniform across India, and this page does not pretend it is

West Bengaldifferent basis, verified — West Bengal prescribes a DIFFERENT benchmark and the default rate on this page does not apply there. Rule 17 of the West Bengal Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Rules reads: “The rate of interest payable under section 12, section 14, section 18 and section 19, as the case may be, shall be the prime lending rate of State Bank of India plus two percent.” That is the prime lending rate, not the marginal cost of lending rate, and the two are materially different numbers. Read 2026-08-31 from the Kolkata Gazette Extraordinary of 27 July 2021 (No. WB/SC-247), as published by the West Bengal Real Estate Regulatory Authority at rera.wb.gov.in. A West Bengal allottee should enter SBI's prime lending rate plus two percent in the rate field rather than accepting the default.
Uttar Pradesh — Not modelled, and deliberately not guessed. UP's own Rules 2016, published at up-rera.in, do carry a Rule 15 headed “Rate of interest payable by the promoter and the allottee” in Chapter V — but the text under that heading in the department's published PDF is a duplicate of the website-backup clause from the preceding rule, and a search of the whole document for “MCLR”, “Marginal Cost” or “State Bank” returns nothing. The rule exists; its operative text is not readable in the document the state publishes. That is inconclusive rather than a finding either way, so no UP rate is asserted here.
Maharashtra and Karnataka — maharera.maharashtra.gov.in and rera.karnataka.gov.in both refused connections from this build environment on 2026-08-31, so neither state's Rules were read to source. Secondary legal databases reproduce MahaRERA's Rule 18 in wording identical to Rajasthan's Rule 17, and that agreement is not treated as a citation here. Check your own state authority's Rules before relying on the default.
Every other state and union territory — RERA rules are made by each state under section 84 of the Act, so the multiplier is a state's own choice and there is no national rate. Only the state whose Rules are quoted above was read today.

Stay and claim interest, or withdraw and take a refund?

Section 18(1) gives you both, and only one of them is what this calculator works out. If you stay, you are paid interest for every month of delay until possession. If you withdraw, you are entitled to a refund of the amounts paid with interest from the date of each payment — a separate interest run per instalment, which a single amount-paid figure cannot express, so this tool does not estimate it.

Staying tends to suit:

·A project genuinely close to completion
·An area where prices have risen since you booked
·A promoter who is financially sound
·A flat you still want and can wait for

Withdrawing tends to suit:

·A long delay with no credible completion date
·A promoter in insolvency or facing NCLT proceedings
·An area where prices have fallen
·A purchase you no longer need

How to claim — step by step

Read the registered agreement, not the brochure

Find the possession date and any grace period — three to six months is common and generally enforceable. Your claimable delay runs from the end of that grace period. Check also whether the promoter has been granted an extension of the project registration under section 6, which moves the date the delay is measured from.

Add up what you have actually paid the promoter

Every instalment, the booking amount, and anything your lender disbursed directly to the builder. Leave out stamp duty, registration, GST and brokerage — none of it went to the promoter, and none of it carries section 18 interest.

Send a legal notice

A registered notice demanding possession or interest establishes the paper trail. Not mandatory, and often enough on its own to get a settlement offer.

File with your state authority under section 18

Attach the registered agreement for sale, every payment receipt, and the correspondence. Check the rate your own state's Rules prescribe before you put a figure in the complaint — it may not be the one on this page.

Execute the order if the promoter does not comply

A RERA order is recoverable as an arrear of land revenue, so non-compliance goes to the Revenue Authority rather than back to square one.

Disclaimer: an estimate of the interest limb of section 18(1) on the figures you enter. What an authority awards depends on the registered agreement, its grace period, any extension granted under section 6, and the facts of your case; compensation under section 18(3) is a separate head assessed by the adjudicating officer. Consult a RERA-registered advocate before filing. The benchmark rate was read 2026-08-31 and SBI revises it monthly.

By RealCost Editorial TeamReviewed by RealCost Editorial TeamLast updated September 21, 2026 with September 2026 data

The state-by-state picture this page has been missing is now three states clearer: Telangana, Karnataka and Maharashtra's own RERA Rules all prescribe the identical "State Bank of India highest Marginal Cost of Lending Rate plus two per cent" formula this calculator already models for Rajasthan — not a coincidence you can extrapolate to every state, but a confirmed match for these three specifically. Before running any state's number, check the project was even required to register: projects under 500 sq m or 8 units are exempt from RERA altogether, and Section 18 only protects buyers of registered projects.

Telangana, Karnataka and Maharashtra: independently confirmed, same formula

Telangana's own gazetted Rules state the identical formula this page already models for Rajasthan: "shall be highest Marginal Cost of Lending Rate of State Bank of India plus two per cent" (Rule 15, Telangana Real Estate Rules, 2017, applicable to projects whose building permission was approved on or after 1 January 2017). Karnataka's Rules, Rule 16, use the same wording almost verbatim: "shall be the State Bank of India highest marginal cost of lending rate plus two percent". And Maharashtra's Rules, Rule 18, made under Section 84 of the central Act, state it a third time: "shall be the State Bank of India highest Marginal Cost of Lending Rate plus two percent", with the same fallback clause Rajasthan's Rule 17 carries — if SBI stops publishing MCLR, the rate is replaced by whatever benchmark lending rate SBI fixes for the general public.

That is three states verified here — Telangana, Karnataka and Maharashtra — using the same benchmark and spread this calculator models for Rajasthan, which is useful for a MahaRERA or K-RERA order specifically, but it is not license to assume a fifth, unchecked state matches. This page's own data file already documents why: West Bengal's Rule 17 prescribes SBI's prime lending rate, not its MCLR, a different benchmark entirely. Use the calculator's rate field to override the default for any state whose Rules you have not personally checked.

Before you calculate: was the project even required to register?

Section 18 compensation is a remedy that attaches to a RERA-registered project. The Act itself carves out an exemption: "no registration of the real estate project shall be required — where the area of land proposed to be developed does not exceed five hundred square meters or the number of apartments proposed to be developed does not exceed eight inclusive of all phases". A small standalone building on a sub-500-sq-m plot, or a project of eight units or fewer, may legally have no RERA registration at all — which means no Section 18 interest claim through the RERA authority for that project, whatever the delay. Check your project's RERA registration number before assuming this calculator's output is a claim you can file; an unregistered small project routes any dispute through consumer courts or civil courts under different law entirely.

The 10% cap on pre-agreement collections — why the 'amount paid' field has a ceiling

The amount this calculator asks you to enter — what you actually paid the builder — is itself bounded by another section of the same Act. Section 13(1) bars a promoter from accepting "a sum more than ten per cent of the cost of the apartment, plot, or building...as an advance payment or an application fee, from a person without first entering into a written agreement for sale". If your pre-agreement payment already exceeds 10% of the announced cost, the builder collected it in breach of Section 13, a separate violation from any possession delay — worth raising alongside a Section 18 claim, not instead of it, since the two sections address different promoter obligations.

Your home loan interest does not pause while you wait

Section 18 interest runs against the builder, on the money you paid the builder. It has no effect on a separate loan you took from a bank to pay for the flat — if that loan is floating-rate, it has been required since 1 October 2019 to track an external benchmark such as the repo rate, and it keeps resetting on the bank's own schedule regardless of how the possession dispute is going. A buyer who has been paying pre-EMI on a home loan through a multi-year delay is carrying two separate interest streams that never net against each other automatically: what the bank charges you, and what the builder may eventually owe you under Section 18. Any settlement or authority order should be checked against both, not assumed to cancel one against the other.

Methodology

State-rule quotations are read directly from each state's own gazetted RERA Rules PDF; the central Act's Section 13/18/3 text is read from the Act as mirrored by UP-RERA's own PDF. No interest rate, cap or exemption threshold is stated without a direct quote from the cited text.

Sources

Government of Telangana — Telangana Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Rules, 2017 — accessed 2026-09-21
Government of Karnataka — Karnataka Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Rules, 2017 — accessed 2026-09-21
Government of Maharashtra — Maharashtra Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Rules, 2017 — accessed 2026-09-21
The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 — Sections 3 and 13 — accessed 2026-09-21
Reserve Bank of India — External benchmark linking of floating-rate retail loans — accessed 2026-09-21

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Frequently asked questions

How is RERA delay compensation calculated?+

Interest under section 18(1) of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 runs on the amount you have PAID to the promoter, not on the agreement value of the flat: amount paid × the prescribed annual rate × months of delay ÷ 12, as simple interest. The Act does not set the rate — each state prescribes it in its own Rules under section 84. Rule 17, Rajasthan Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Rules, 2017 — “Rate of interest payable by the promoter and the allottee” reads: "The rate of interest payable by the promoter to the allottee or by the allottee to the promoter, as the case may be, shall be the State Bank of India highest marginal cost of lending rate plus two percent: Provided that in case the State Bank of India marginal cost of funds based lending rates is not in use it would be replaced by such benchmark lending rates which the State Bank of India may fix, from time to time, for lending to the general public." (Rajasthan Rajpatra (Government Gazette), Part 6(Kha), 3 May 2017 — Urban Development & Housing Department, Government of Rajasthan, udh.rajasthan.gov.in, read 2026-08-31). Note "highest": SBI publishes a tenor ladder and the highest tenor is the three-year rate at 8.8% effective 2026-08-15, not the one-year rate most tables quote, which gives 10.8% per annum today. On ₹40,00,000 paid and 18 months of delay that is ₹36,000 a month and ₹6,48,000 in total.

Is the RERA interest rate the same in every state?+

No, and this calculator does not assume it is. RERA Rules are made by each state under section 84, so the benchmark is a state's own choice. West Bengal prescribes a DIFFERENT benchmark and the default rate on this page does not apply there. Rule 17 of the West Bengal Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Rules reads: “The rate of interest payable under section 12, section 14, section 18 and section 19, as the case may be, shall be the prime lending rate of State Bank of India plus two percent.” That is the prime lending rate, not the marginal cost of lending rate, and the two are materially different numbers. Read 2026-08-31 from the Kolkata Gazette Extraordinary of 27 July 2021 (No. WB/SC-247), as published by the West Bengal Real Estate Regulatory Authority at rera.wb.gov.in. A West Bengal allottee should enter SBI's prime lending rate plus two percent in the rate field rather than accepting the default. Only the state Rules quoted in the citation on this page were read to source; every other state is named on the page as unread rather than folded into the default. Check your own state authority's Rules, and change the rate field if they prescribe a different benchmark.

Should I take interest and stay, or withdraw and take a refund?+

Section 18(1) gives you both options and they are calculated differently. If you stay you are paid interest for every month of delay until possession, which is what this calculator works out. If you withdraw you are entitled to a refund of the amounts paid together with interest FROM THE DATE OF EACH PAYMENT — a separate interest run per instalment, which a single amount-paid figure and a single delay period cannot express, so this tool does not attempt it. Staying tends to suit a project that is nearly complete in an area where prices have risen; withdrawing tends to suit a long delay, a promoter in financial difficulty, or an area where prices have fallen. Neither is a general answer and both are worth an advocate's hour.

Can I claim if the delay is only a few months?+

The Act sets no minimum delay — a single month past the date in the registered agreement for sale is claimable. What usually shortens a claim is the grace period written into the agreement itself, commonly three to six months, which is generally enforceable; the delay runs from the end of that grace period rather than from the headline possession date. The date that matters is the one in the registered agreement, not the one in the brochure or the one a salesperson gave you. A promoter may also have been granted an extension of the project registration under section 6, which moves the date the delay is measured from.

Is the interest charged on the flat's price or on what I have paid?+

On what you have paid to the promoter. This is the most common error in a self-calculated claim and it roughly doubles the figure on a part-paid flat. Include every instalment actually paid, the booking amount, and any amount your lender disbursed directly to the builder, because that is paid on your account. Exclude stamp duty, registration fees, GST and brokerage — none of those was paid to the promoter. Using ₹40,00,000 paid on a flat with an agreement value of ₹80,00,000, the correct 18-month figure is ₹6,48,000; running it on the agreement value would produce ₹12,96,000 and the authority will not award it.

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