What is NOC (no objection certificate)?
Also called: no objection certificate, anapatti praman patra
Written confirmation from a person or authority that it doesn't object to a transaction: a society to a flat sale, a bank to the transfer of a mortgaged property, or a builder to a resale before possession.
There isn't one NOC in a property deal; there are several, and which ones you need depends on the city, the kind of property and who else has a stake in it.
For a resale flat the usual set is the housing society's NOC confirming the seller has cleared dues and the society will record the transfer; the lender's letter if the seller's loan is still running, stating the outstanding amount and agreeing to release the documents on payment; and, for an under-construction flat, the builder's NOC endorsing the transfer, normally against a transfer fee. On leasehold plots in Noida, Greater Noida and many industrial towns, the development authority's transfer permission plays the same role and carries its own charges.
Projects need a different family of NOCs before the building plan is sanctioned: fire, airport height clearance near flight paths, the pollution control board, and sometimes forest or heritage authorities.
One point Mumbai sellers and buyers often miss. A society's NOC isn't a legal precondition for registering a flat sale in Maharashtra, and a society can't block a transfer just by sitting on the letter. Societies still issue them because banks ask. What they can't do is demand an arbitrary 'donation' for it; the model bye-laws cap the transfer premium at ₹25,000.
A seller in Wakad, Pune still owes ₹22 lakh to a private bank on her flat. She gets the bank's letter confirming the payoff figure, the buyer's lender pays that amount straight to her bank, and her bank releases the original documents with a closure NOC.
Relying on a seller's promise that the NOC 'will come after registration'. Get the lender's outstanding-amount letter and the society's no-dues position in writing before paying anything beyond the token amount.
Questions people ask about NOC (no objection certificate)
Is a society NOC compulsory for selling a flat in Maharashtra?
It isn't a legal requirement for registering the sale, but most banks insist on it, and the society still has to admit the buyer as a member and transfer the shares.
How long is an NOC valid?
Bank and builder NOCs usually carry a validity date, and a bank's payoff figure holds only for a few weeks. If registration slips past that date, get fresh letters.