Reminder: Societies in 30+ Year-Old Buildings Must Complete Structural Audits

As Maharashtra's monsoon season draws to a close, municipal corporations including the BMC are renewing their annual push to ensure that older residential buildings undergo mandatory structural audits. Under Section 353B of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act, 1888, every owner and occupier of a building that has been in existence for more than 30 years must have it inspected by a structural engineer registered with the municipal corporation.

What the law requires

The age of a building is calculated from the date its Completion Certificate (CC) was issued, or from the date of possession sanctioned by the authority, whichever applies. Once a building crosses the 30-year mark, the frequency of audits increases: buildings aged 15 to 30 years must be audited once every 5 years, while buildings older than 30 years must be audited once every 3 years. After an audit, the structural engineer's stability certificate must be submitted to the ward's Assistant Commissioner, typically within 30 days of any municipal notice.

What this means for housing societies

• The Managing Committee, not individual flat owners, is responsible for commissioning the audit and filing the certificate with the municipal ward office.
• The Chairman and Secretary can be held personally, civilly and criminally liable for negligence if a required audit is skipped or delayed.
• A building rated structurally unsafe (C1 category) can face demolition orders or loss of its Occupancy Certificate if repairs are not carried out promptly.
• Under the MCS Amendment Rules 2026, the Sinking Fund — meant to cover future structural reconstruction — must be maintained at a minimum of 0.25% per annum of each flat's construction cost, and a structural auditor's recommendation can justify raising this rate.
• Societies that have not audited their building in the last audit cycle should treat this as a priority action item before the next AGM, since audit certificates are increasingly being requested during Registrar inspections and committee disqualification proceedings.

Committees uncertain whether their building falls due for an audit this year should check the CC date in their society's original registration file, or request records from the municipal ward office. Societies overdue for an audit risk penalty notices, and in Mumbai's older housing stock — much of it now well past the 30-year threshold — this is one compliance item that has increasingly attracted scrutiny following recent building safety incidents across the state.