Approvals & RERA in Tamil Nadu

Which regime the project falls under, the NOCs it must collect, whether RERA applies, and how long a permission lasts.

What permissions do I need before building?

TNCDBR has been amended fourteen times since February 2019: G.O. Ms. Nos. 16 (31.01.2020), 51 (11.05.2020), 152 (18.08.2022), 15 (14.01.2024), 58 (05.03.2024), 69 and 70 (both 11.03.2024), 225 (26.11.2024), 107 (16.07.2025), 154 (07.10.2025), 155 (08.10.2025), 156 (10.10.2025), 161 (15.10.2025) and 171 (30.10.2025). The consolidated PDF circulating on municipal websites is the February 2019 base text and incorporates none of them, so any figure read off it should be checked against the amendment list before it is relied on. CMDA publishes all fourteen.

CMDA, Amendments to TNCDBR 2019 — and 1 related rules below.

The rules — all 2

Fourteen amendments, and the circulating base text has none of them

verbatim

TNCDBR has been amended fourteen times since February 2019: G.O. Ms. Nos. 16 (31.01.2020), 51 (11.05.2020), 152 (18.08.2022), 15 (14.01.2024), 58 (05.03.2024), 69 and 70 (both 11.03.2024), 225 (26.11.2024), 107 (16.07.2025), 154 (07.10.2025), 155 (08.10.2025), 156 (10.10.2025), 161 (15.10.2025) and 171 (30.10.2025). The consolidated PDF circulating on municipal websites is the February 2019 base text and incorporates none of them, so any figure read off it should be checked against the amendment list before it is relied on. CMDA publishes all fourteen.

CMDA, Amendments to TNCDBR 2019

Completion certificate waived up to 8 dwellings, not 3

verbatim

G.O. Ms. No. 70 of 11.03.2024 — issued the same day as G.O. 69 — raised the exemption in rule 35(21)(c) and rule 39(12)(c) from 'not exceeding 3 dwelling units or 750 sq.m' to 'not exceeding 8 dwelling units or 750 sq.m'. Read with G.O. 69, which lifted the same provisions' height limit from 12 m to 14 m, a small residential building now clears the completion-certificate requirement at nearly three times the unit count it used to.

G.O. Ms. No. 70, H&UD Department, 11.03.2024
Sources on this page
  • CMDA, Amendments to TNCDBR 2019
  • G.O. Ms. No. 70, H&UD Department, 11.03.2024

Official text: Tamil Nadu Combined Development and Building Rules, 2019 ↗

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