Self-Redevelopment for Maharashtra Housing Societies: The Bye-Law 157 Steps, the Rule 106C-10 Borrowing Boost, and Where Committees Get Stuck

A committee votes to "go self-redevelopment" at the AGM, and then spends eighteen months finding out what that decision actually requires

A society's general body, tired of developer offers that keep shrinking the free-sale component, votes to redevelop the building itself — no builder, no developer, the society as its own promoter. The resolution is minuted, applauded, and then nothing structured happens for months. Someone is deputed to "look into architects." Someone else says the society doesn't have the money and someone should "talk to a bank." A year and a half later, the society still has no architect under contract, no sanctioned plans, and no idea how much it can actually borrow. The vote to self-redevelop was the easy part. Bye-laws 155 to 158 and Rule 106C-13's committee obligations, and Rule 106C-10's borrowing rule, tell a committee reasonably precisely what has to happen next — and none of it is optional groundwork.

There is a plain point to make first: the datasets a Maharashtra housing society's committee works from do not carve out a separate procedure for "self-redevelopment." Bye-laws 155-158 govern redevelopment and major repair generally, whether the society appoints a builder-developer or acts as its own developer; Rule 106C-13's general body and redevelopment-meeting provisions apply the same way either route is chosen. The one place the 2026 rules explicitly single out self-redevelopment is finance — and that is exactly where most societies stall.

What bye-law 157 actually requires, step by step

Bye-law 157 lays out the sequence a committee is bound to follow, whether or not a developer is in the picture:

1. 1Set the no-tender spending limit first. The general body must fix, by resolution, the amount up to which the committee can spend on repair and maintenance work without calling for tenders. Above that limit, tenders are mandatory.
2. 2Appoint the architect through the general body, not the committee alone. Bye-law 157(d)-(f) requires the architect's appointment — on terms the general body approves — to follow the Architect Act, 1972, and, for redevelopment of society buildings, the procedure in the Government Resolutions as amended from time to time. (The specific Government Resolution dated 3 January 2009 is named in bye-law 157(h), which governs the tender stage, and in bye-law 175(a).) If no architect has already been appointed (which, in self-redevelopment, is the ordinary starting position — there is no promoter to have done it earlier), the general body itself appoints one.
3. 3Get plans and a feasibility report from the architect, and take them to the general body. The architect prepares plans, a cost estimate, and a feasibility report in consultation with the committee; the committee places these before the general body, and only after the general body approves them does the architect submit the plans to the local planning authority for sanction.
4. 4Invite tenders as a Committee, in consultation with the architect, following the 3 January 2009 GR procedure, then have the Secretary open the tenders at a committee meeting.
5. 5Scrutinise tenders with the architect, report to the general body, and only then contract. The committee's tender report and draft terms go to the general body for a decision; only after that approval does the committee sign the contract with the contractor.
6. 6Write an arbitration clause into both the architect's and the contractor's contract deeds — bye-law 157(j) requires disputes arising from execution of the contracts to go to a sole arbitrator appointed by the society, not to be left to be argued about after the fact.

Bye-law 158 then puts the committee on the hook for the whole build: it must see the work through to completion under the terms of the executed contract, and stay responsible for it until then. None of steps 1-6 is a formality that can be taken on the committee's own authority — every substantive decision (architect's terms, plans, tender award, contract) passes through the general body before the committee can act on it.

Where the financing usually breaks

A self-redevelopment project cannot be funded the way ordinary repairs are. The general borrowing ceiling in Rule 106C-10 caps a society's total liabilities at ten times the sum of its paid-up share capital, accumulated reserve fund, members' contribution towards land and building, and building fund — minus accumulated losses. For most older societies, that ceiling is nowhere near enough to fund a full building reconstruction.

Rule 106C-10 carries a specific exception for exactly this situation: for self-redevelopment or self-development, the society may borrow up to ten times the value of the land — as determined by a government-approved valuer's report — rather than ten times its own accumulated funds. That is a materially larger borrowing capacity, but it depends on two things a committee routinely leaves too late: commissioning a government-approved valuer's report on the land, and having a general body resolution authorising borrowing against that valuation before construction contracts are signed, not after.

This is also where bye-law 157(b) bites hardest: any one-time expenditure on repairs and maintenance beyond the limits in bye-law 157(a) — ₹25,000 for societies up to 25 members, ₹50,000 for 26 to 50, ₹1,00,000 for 51 and above, figures now materially raised by Rule 106C-13(5) of the 2026 rules to ₹1,00,000–₹5,00,000 by society size — needs prior sanction of the general body, quite apart from the separate no-tender limit the general body fixes under bye-law 157(c). A self-redevelopment project's contract value will, in almost every case, be well past that limit — so the general body's approval of the contractor's contract is not a courtesy, it is the step that makes the committee's signature on the contract lawful.

What your committee should do

1. 1Before appointing anyone, commission a government-approved valuer's report on the society's land — this is the document Rule 106C-10's self-redevelopment borrowing exception is anchored to, and lenders will ask for it regardless.
2. 2Bring the architect's appointment and terms to the general body for approval under bye-law 157(d)-(f); do not let the committee finalise architect terms on its own authority.
3. 3Once the architect delivers plans, cost estimate, and feasibility report, place all three before the general body before any submission to the local planning authority.
4. 4Fix, by general body resolution, the no-tender spending limit under bye-law 157(c), so the committee knows from day one which decisions it can make alone and which need a further general body meeting.
5. 5Follow the 3 January 2009 GR tender procedure: invite tenders as a Committee in consultation with the architect, have the Secretary open them at a committee meeting, and take the committee's scrutinised report to the general body before signing any construction contract.
6. 6Insert an arbitration clause into the architect's and contractor's contract deeds as bye-law 157(j) requires, naming how the sole arbitrator will be appointed.
7. 7Obtain the general body's borrowing resolution — referencing the valuer's report and the ten-times-land-value ceiling — before, not after, the construction contract is signed, so the financing is lawfully in place when the committee needs to draw on it.