Car Parking Location Changed After Allotment: Your Slot, the Law, and Who Decides

Reviewed on: 2026-06-12.

Before fighting over the new location, check what kind of parking you were allotted. The legal strength of your objection depends on it.

The table reflects a settled position. In Nahalchand Laloochand Pvt Ltd v. Panchali Co-operative Housing Society (Supreme Court, 2010), the court held that stilt and open parking spaces are not independent units a builder can sell; they belong to the common areas for the flat owners collectively. RERA carried that logic into its definitions: only a closed garage is saleable property, while open parking sits inside common areas that must eventually be conveyed to the association.

If you bought a closed garage identified by number in your agreement, the builder cannot swap it any more than he can swap your flat. A unilateral change is an alteration of what you purchased, and your objection under the agreement and Section 14 of RERA is strong. Demand the original garage or a registered amendment with your consent and a price adjustment.

If you hold an allotment letter for a covered or stilt slot, say slot B2-47, and the builder now points you to a tandem slot behind a pillar in B3, your right is contractual against the builder until society formation. The allotment letter or annexure is enforceable: the builder collected consideration against a specific slot, and shifting you to a materially worse one is a deficiency you can take to RERA or the consumer commission. Materially worse means farther, narrower, tandem instead of independent, or on a different level.

If your slot was open parking, the hard truth is that permanent ownership was never the builder's to give. Allocation of open slots is the society's job after handover, usually by a general body policy. Your fight is for a fair allocation policy, not for slot ownership. If the builder charged you a lump sum for an open slot, that money is recoverable, see the companion guide on apartment parking sold illegally.

1. Your allotment proof. The agreement annexure, allotment letter, or even the cost sheet showing a parking charge against a numbered slot. A payment receipt mentioning “covered car parking” plus the slot number in any builder communication will do.
2. The sanctioned plan and RERA filings. The parking layout in the sanctioned plan shows how many slots of each type legally exist. Builders shuffle allotments most often when they have oversold slots against the sanctioned count. Download the project's plan documents from the state RERA portal page.
3. The new location in writing. Make the builder confirm the changed slot by email. A change that exists only verbally is designed to be denied later.

If the sanctioned parking count is the suspected problem, RTI gets you the official record. File with the municipal corporation or development authority for a certified copy of the sanctioned basement and stilt parking layout for the project, with the approved number of car parks per level. The builder is private; the planning authority is not. The route is in how to file RTI online.

Write to the builder within days of learning of the change. State the original slot, the consideration paid, the changed slot, and that you do not consent. Ask for restoration or a written explanation with the sanctioned layout reference, within 15 days. Mark a copy to the society if it exists.

If the builder stands firm, escalate by the nature of your slot. Garage and covered-slot holders file at the state RERA authority against the project registration: MahaRERA Form A with the Rs 5,000 fee, or your own state's portal and fee. Ask for restoration of the allotted slot or, in the alternative, refund of the parking consideration with interest, plus compensation if the substitute is unusable. Open-slot disputes after society formation go to the society's general body first, then the cooperative registrar's machinery in your state.

One timing note: get the parking right recorded before conveyance. When common areas pass to the association, an undocumented “understanding” with the builder's sales team evaporates. If the builder is dragging conveyance itself, see builder delaying the conveyance deed.

• Paying cash for parking with no receipt. Without a paper trail, even a strong legal position has nothing to stand on.
• Treating a “tentative” slot number in the cost sheet as final. Ask for the slot to be named in the agreement annexure at purchase time.
• Accepting the swapped slot in conduct, parking there for a year without protest, before objecting. Object in writing first, even while using the substitute.
• Suing the society for what the builder did. Pre-formation allotments are the builder's liability; the society inherits administration, not his promises.

Related guides: builder changed layout or amenities after booking, builder not handing over common areas, and the hub at all practical guides.

Not when consideration was paid against a specific covered slot or garage. Provisional language in a cost sheet does not override an allotment letter and payment. For open parking, allotment genuinely is provisional until the society frames its policy.

No. You paid for the original slot. A relocation the builder initiates cannot become a fresh sale. If you voluntarily want an upgrade, that is a new transaction, documented and priced transparently.

That is double allotment, common in oversold basements. Both of you have claims against the builder, not against each other. File at RERA together if possible; the sanctioned layout obtained by RTI will show whether the basement ever had enough slots.

A saleable garage, yes, insist on it. A covered slot allotted for exclusive use should at minimum appear in the agreement annexure and the possession letter. Open parking does not enter the deed.

For open parking, yes, through a fair general body policy. For garages sold by deed, no. Covered-slot exclusive-use allotments sit in between; societies usually honour documented builder allotments, and disputes go to the registrar or court.

Document it: measurements, photos, the sanctioned layout's slot dimensions. A slot that cannot hold a standard car is no allotment at all, which strengthens a refund-with-interest claim.

Download the parking allotment dispute checklist (PDF).