TS-bPASS and BuildNow: Checking a Hyderabad Building Permission Before You Buy

A couple house hunting in Rajendra Nagar in October 2026 liked an almost finished independent house. When they asked for the building approval, the seller handed over a single page that said the plan was self certified and approved online. No municipal engineer had visited, no stamped sanction drawing was offered, and the seller treated the one page as proof that everything was in order. The couple were right to pause. Self certification is a real, legal approval in Telangana, but what it does and does not promise is exactly what a buyer needs to understand before paying.

The short answer. Hyderabad building permissions now run through TS-bPASS, delivered on the BuildNow Telangana portal, where small plots are simply registered and larger ones get instant approval on the owner's own self certification. For a buyer that means there is almost always a record to check online, but the approval rests on the owner's word, so you must match the sanctioned plan against the actual building. The trade off is speed for the builder against verification work for you.

What is TS-bPASS, and why does self certification matter to a buyer?

TS-bPASS is the Telangana State Building Permission Approval and Self Certification System, a single window online route for building and layout permissions, now delivered through the newer TS-bPASS and BuildNow Telangana portal. Instead of a file moving slowly across departments, an owner applies online, and for most residential plots the approval is issued immediately on a self certification that the plan follows the planning and zoning rules.

For a buyer this is a double edged change. The good side is transparency, because there is an online application and a number you can look up rather than a paper that only the builder holds. The hard side is that nobody from the municipality necessarily inspected the plan before approval. The accountability sits with the person who certified it. If that certification was wrong, for example a plan that quietly ignored setbacks or added an unapproved floor, the approval can still be acted against later. So the existence of an approval number is the start of your check, not the end of it.

The system was built to cut delay. Before it, builders complained of months of waiting and repeated visits for a routine house plan, and that delay was itself a breeding ground for unofficial payments. By putting the process online and trusting the owner's certification up front, the state moved the checking to the back end, where random and complaint based inspections are meant to catch false declarations. For an honest owner on a small plot the result is a permission in minutes. For a buyer years later, the same design means the paper trail is thin on independent scrutiny, which is precisely why your own verification carries more weight than it would under an old style sanctioned plan.

Which permission category applies to the property?

The route depends mainly on plot size and height, and knowing the category tells you how much scrutiny the approval actually received. Smaller plots get the lightest process, which is convenient but means the plan was never examined by the authority at all.

The exact upper limit for the self certification band has been described differently across sources, so confirm the current size ceiling on the official portal rather than relying on a number from a brochure. What matters for your decision is simple: the smaller and lighter the approval route, the more you personally need to verify that the building on the ground matches the plan that was certified.

How do I verify a building permission before I buy?

You verify it online, using the number the seller provides, before any large payment. The portal lets anyone track an application, so you do not need the seller's login to confirm that an approval exists and what it covers.

1. Ask the seller for the TS-bPASS application or permission number and a copy of the approved plan.
2. Open the TS-bPASS portal, now on BuildNow Telangana, and choose Know Your Application Status.
3. Enter the application or permission number, or the registered mobile number if that is how it was filed.
4. Confirm the plot location, extent and owner name on the record match the property and the seller.
5. Check the approved number of floors and the built up area against what has actually been constructed.
6. Look for setback and height compliance, since these are the items most often ignored in a self certified plan.
7. Save the record with the date, and for a completed home ask separately for the occupancy certificate.

If the number does not resolve, or the approved plan shows fewer floors than the house in front of you, treat that as a deviation and get it explained in writing before proceeding. A deviation does not always kill a deal, but it changes what you are buying and can affect your loan and your own future approvals. Keeping a dated screenshot of the portal record also protects you later, because it shows exactly what the approval covered on the day you checked it.

What self certification shifts onto you

Self certification moves the burden of proof from the authority to the documents, and therefore to the buyer who reads them. Because the municipality did not vet the plan up front, the only real safeguard is your own comparison of the sanctioned drawing with the physical structure. An extra floor, an enclosed setback or a converted terrace can all sit behind a valid looking approval number because the number only reflects what the owner declared.

This is why a self certified approval should travel with two other documents in your file. The first is the sanctioned plan itself, so you can measure what was promised. The second, for any completed building, is the occupancy certificate, which is the authority's confirmation that the finished structure was built as approved. Our explainer on the difference between an occupancy certificate and a completion certificate in Hyderabad shows why permission alone is not proof of a compliant building.

There is also a money angle to deviations. A lender valuing the property will compare the sanctioned plan with the structure, and an unapproved floor or an enclosed setback can reduce the loan eligible value or lead the bank to fund only the approved portion. A buyer who discovers this after agreeing a price has lost negotiating room. Spotting it during your own check lets you either ask the seller to regularise the deviation first or reprice the deal to reflect what is actually legal, rather than paying full value for a part that the authority may never recognise.

Independent house or apartment: what changes

For an independent house the permission and any deviation are what you inherit directly, so the verification above is yours to do, ideally with an engineer who can read the sanctioned plan. A regularised deviation, or one small enough to be compounded, may be acceptable, but you should know about it before you pay, not after. The seller certified the plan, and once you buy, the structure and its history become yours.

Resale buyers should pay particular attention here. A house that changed hands once or twice may have been extended by a previous owner without updating the approval, so the self certified plan on the portal can describe a smaller, older version of the building. Ask for the plan that matches the current structure, and if the seller cannot produce one, assume the extra construction is unapproved until shown otherwise. It is far cheaper to resolve this before registration than to inherit a notice after you own the house.

For a flat in a promoter's project the building permission sits with the developer, and you verify the project level permission number alongside the regulator registration and the occupancy certificate. Buyers who want that paperwork concentrated in one accountable place often prefer a registered project such as Casagrand Vybe in Rajendra Nagar, where the permission and compliance records are held at the project level. Once those are clear, the rest of the purchase follows the normal path set out in our guide to the Telangana property registration process.

Frequently asked questions

Do all Hyderabad houses need a TS-bPASS building permission?

Almost all do, but the route differs by plot size. A plot up to 75 square yards with height up to 7 metres only needs a simple registration, while larger plots need instant approval or scrutiny. Either way there should be a record on the portal, so ask for the number and check it.

What does self-certification mean for me as the buyer?

It means the owner, not an inspector, certified that the plan follows the rules, and approval was granted on that promise. The authority can inspect later and act if the certification was false. So you should verify the sanctioned plan against what was actually built before you rely on the approval.

How do I verify a building permission number in Hyderabad?

Open the TS-bPASS portal, now delivered through BuildNow Telangana, and use Know Your Application Status. Enter the application or permission number the seller gives you. Match the approved plot size, setbacks and number of floors with the physical building, and treat any mismatch as a deviation to investigate.

Is a building permission the same as an occupancy certificate?

No. A building permission allows construction to begin on an approved plan, while an occupancy certificate confirms the finished building was built as approved and is fit to occupy. A buyer of a completed home should see both, because permission alone does not prove the structure matches the sanction.

Last updated 2026-10-07. PropNewz Team.