In a Kokapet high-rise last month, a buyer named Anitha almost wired thirty five lakh as a booking amount before her lawyer asked one question: does this tower have a sanctioned building permission, and can we see it on the state portal? The developer produced a glossy brochure and a plan stamped in 2019. What the brochure did not show was whether that sanction still matched what had actually been built ten floors higher than the drawing. That single unanswered question is where most Hyderabad buying mistakes begin.

The short answer. Every building in Telangana needs a permission issued through TG-bPASS, the state single window and self certification system, and an occupancy certificate once it is finished. Instant self certification is allowed only for residential plots up to 500 square metres and heights up to 10 metres. Anything taller or non residential goes through the single window route, which the state targets to clear in about 21 days. The trade off is simple. Verifying a permission and OC yourself costs you an afternoon and nothing in rupees, while skipping it can cost you the entire deal if the building is later found unauthorised.

What is TG-bPASS and why does it decide whether your flat is legal?

TG-bPASS is the Telangana Building Permission Approval and Self Certification System, the single online window through which construction permits, plan sanctions and occupancy certificates are issued across the state. It was rolled out by the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation and the state to replace scattered department by department approvals with one application. For a buyer this matters because a flat built without a valid TG-bPASS sanction is an unauthorised structure, and no amount of a clean sale deed fixes that. The permission is the document that tells you the local body agreed the building could exist at that height, that footprint and that use.

You can see the live system yourself at tgbpass.telangana.gov.in. The state has been consolidating new applications under GHMC, HMDA and DTCP limits onto a newer platform branded BuildNow, so always confirm which portal is live when you check, and treat an older sanctioned plan you see on a completed building as still valid on its own terms.

Which buildings get instant approval and which need the single window?

The size of the plot decides the route, and that tells you what to expect in the paperwork. Under TG-bPASS, instant building approval through self certification is available for a plot area up to 500 square metres and a height up to 10 metres for residential use. For any building taller than 10 metres, and for all non residential permissions, the single window system handles the file and the state targets a sanction within 21 days. At the very small end, residential plots up to 75 square yards with ground or ground plus one floor need only a simple registration rather than a full sanction.

Why should a flat buyer care about these thresholds? Because they tell you what document should exist. If you are buying in a ten storey tower, that building is well above 10 metres, so it cannot have been waved through on instant self certification. It should carry a single window sanction with proper structural and setback scrutiny. A seller who waves a self certification receipt for a high rise is showing you the wrong document.

What is an occupancy certificate and can you move in without one?

An occupancy certificate, or OC, is the local body confirmation that a completed building was constructed as sanctioned and is fit to occupy. Under TG-bPASS, occupancy certificates are processed online for both non high rise and high rise buildings on plots above 200 square metres. The OC is issued only after the authority is satisfied the finished structure matches the approved plan, which is exactly why it protects you.

Practically, banks increasingly ask for the OC before releasing the final loan tranche, and utility connections and property tax records are cleaner when an OC exists. Buying a flat without an OC does not make the sale illegal by itself, but it leaves you exposed. If the building later deviates from its sanction, the missing OC is the gap through which demolition notices, penalties and resale problems arrive. Our detailed walk through of this document lives in the GHMC occupancy certificate buyer guide.

How do you actually verify a permission on the portal?

You verify a permission by matching the sanctioned plan against the building in front of you, using the portal to confirm the sanction is real. Ask the seller or developer for the TG-bPASS application number and the sanctioned plan copy. On the portal, the citizen search and application tracking features let you enter that application number to see the status and details of the file. Then compare the sanctioned number of floors, the setbacks and the built up area against what has been constructed.

The mismatch you are hunting for is the extra floor, the covered setback or the balcony enclosed into a room, because those are the deviations that turn a legal building into a partly unauthorised one. If the numbers on the portal and the numbers on the ground do not line up, that is your signal to slow the deal down, not speed it up. A project like Prestige Clairemont in Kokapet is the kind of large sanctioned development where the approving authority and RERA identifiers are documented, and that is the paper trail you want to be able to see for any tower.

How does TG-bPASS verification sit alongside your other Hyderabad checks?

Building permission is one of four checks, and doing all four is what actually protects a buyer. The permission and OC tell you the structure is legal. The land title and encumbrance record tell you the seller owns what they are selling. The prohibited property list tells you the land is not government or disputed. And the stamp duty and registration step is what finally transfers ownership to you. Miss any one and the others cannot cover for it.

For the registration ban check, our guide on the Section 22A prohibited property list shows how a plot can look clean and still be un-registrable.

What are the biggest permission mistakes Hyderabad buyers make?

The most common mistake is accepting a brochure image of a plan instead of the sanction record itself. A rendering is marketing, not approval. The second mistake is not counting floors. If the sanction is for five floors and the building has six, the top floor is unauthorised no matter how finished it looks. The third mistake is assuming an old building is safe because it is old, when in fact many older structures were never regularised. The fourth is ignoring the OC because the flat is ready to move in, which confuses habitability with legality.

Each of these is avoidable in an afternoon. The portal is public, the thresholds are fixed, and the sanctioned plan is a document the seller is expected to hold. If a seller cannot or will not produce it, that refusal is itself information.

There is also a quieter mistake worth naming, which is treating the builder relationship as verification. Buyers often assume that because a large, familiar developer is behind a tower, the permission must be in order. Reputation is reassuring, but it is not a document, and even reputable projects carry deviations between an early sanction and a final structure when floors or amenities are added during construction. The habit that protects you is boring and repeatable. You ask for the sanction, you open the portal, and you match the numbers yourself rather than relying on anyone telling you the numbers are fine.

Keep every document you gather during this check. The sanctioned plan, the OC record and a screenshot of the portal status form a small evidence file that helps your lawyer, your bank and, one day, your own buyer when you resell. In Hyderabad, where towers rise quickly in corridors like Kokapet, the Financial District and the Outer Ring Road belt, the buildings that hold their value at resale are almost always the ones whose paperwork was clean from the first day. Verification is not a hurdle before the purchase. It is the first act of protecting an asset you are about to own for years.

Your seven step TG-bPASS verification checklist

1. Ask the seller for the TG-bPASS or BuildNow application number and the full sanctioned plan copy.
2. Open tgbpass.telangana.gov.in and use citizen search or application tracking to confirm the file is real.
3. Read the sanctioned number of floors and compare it against the floors actually built.
4. Check the sanctioned setbacks and built up area against the physical structure.
5. Confirm the route matches the building, single window for anything above 10 metres.
6. Ask for the occupancy certificate and match it to the completed building.
7. If any number does not match, pause the payment and get a lawyer to review before proceeding.

Frequently asked questions

Is TG-bPASS approval mandatory for every building in Telangana? Yes. TG-bPASS is the single window through which building permissions and sanctions are issued in the state, so a building without a valid sanction is unauthorised. Instant self certification covers only residential plots up to 500 square metres and 10 metres height, while everything larger uses the single window route.

Can I buy a flat that does not have an occupancy certificate? The sale itself is not illegal, but it leaves you exposed. The occupancy certificate confirms the finished building matches its sanctioned plan, and banks often want it before the last loan tranche. Without it you carry the risk of deviation notices and resale trouble later.

How do I check a building permission online in Hyderabad? Use the TG-bPASS portal at tgbpass.telangana.gov.in and enter the application number in the citizen search or application tracker. Then compare the sanctioned floors, setbacks and built up area against the building itself. A mismatch is your signal to investigate before paying.

What plot size gets instant self certification approval? Instant approval through self certification applies to residential plots up to 500 square metres with a height up to 10 metres. Buildings taller than 10 metres and all non residential buildings go through the single window system, which the state targets to sanction in about 21 days.

Last updated 2026-08-27. PropNewz Team.