Karnataka Encumbrance Certificate Explained: Form 15, Form 16 and the Kaveri Application

Few papers matter as much in a Bangalore property purchase as the encumbrance certificate (EC), and few are as often misread. Banks ask for it before any home loan is sanctioned, and lawyers use it to test what a seller says. This article explains what the EC records, how its two formats differ, how it is ordered through Kaveri and what it cannot prove.

Three Moments for an EC

Timing comes first, because one certificate is never enough. A prudent buyer collects the first out of the seller's own file before paying a token amount. The second is a separate order from the buyer's lawyer, placed during the title check. A third is taken fresh in the week the sale deed is registered.

A fourth copy after the sale is also useful. It lists the sale deed made out to the buyer. It also backs the khata transfer, and later buyers or lenders will ask for it before anything else. If a loan funded the purchase, the lender's charge appears on it until a release entry clears it.

What the Certificate Is

Sub-registrar offices under the Stamps and Registration Department index each deed they register on the property it concerns. The certificate reproduces that index for a stretch of years the applicant picks, so it describes the property's registered history and nothing more.

The index holds many deed types:

• Sale deeds and agreements to sell that were registered
• Mortgages, including memoranda noting that a lender holds the title deeds as deposit
• Releases, reconveyances and discharges that end a mortgage
• Deeds of exchange, gift, partition and settlement
• Leases and powers of attorney registered against the property
• Decrees of courts and attachment orders sent in for registration

Despite the name, entries are not limited to debts. Ownership changes appear too, and read from oldest to newest the rows narrate how the property reached the present seller. That is why lawyers keep the EC beside the title deeds.

Form 16 and Form 15

A search can produce one of two outcomes.

• Form 16 is the nil outcome. It states that no registered deed exists for the property in the years searched.
• Form 15 is the fuller one. It gives a row for every deed found, showing number, date, kind, parties and amount.

The Form 15 is the ordinary result, since a property that changed hands, was mortgaged or passed by inheritance will have deeds. Expect the row for the seller's own purchase. A Form 16 for the very years when the seller says the purchase took place is what calls for questions.

Nil means little unless the description searched was exact. Typing the survey, plot or boundary particulars differently from the deeds can return nothing even though deeds exist. Always check the property schedule on the certificate against the sale deed.

Years to Cover

Lenders in Karnataka usually accept a minimum of 13 years, but careful title checking goes back 30. The period must reach the earliest deed of the chain being reviewed. It must also end in the current month, since a certificate ending last year cannot show a loan taken since.

Long searches are normally split. For most offices, computerised records start in April 2004 and can be ordered online. For earlier years, the manual registers kept by the sub-registrar have to be searched through a separate and slower application.

Ordering Through Kaveri

The Kaveri portal of the department offers the EC as an online service. Screens are updated from time to time, but the order of steps stays much the same:

1. Register on the portal with a phone number and an email address.
2. Pick the EC service, and after it the district, taluk, hobli and the village or locality.
3. Describe the property as in the deed, covering the survey number, the site or flat number, the khata number and the boundaries.
4. Set the dates between which the search will run.
5. Scan the entries shown and request the digitally signed version.
6. Pay the fee, and fetch the certificate after it is issued.

The charges are small, consisting of an application fee and a search fee that rises with the number of years. Only the signed copy will satisfy a lender or a lawyer, since the on-screen preview is unsigned and meant only for a first look.

One Plot, Several Descriptions

Plots on the city's edge often change identity. A survey number gets subdivided, then turns into a plot number in a layout, and finally into a flat that carries an undivided share of land. Search under every description the property has had. The lawyer should also repeat the search under the owners' names.

Working Through a Form 15

Each row of a Form 15 carries five kinds of information:

• The property description, with measurements and boundaries
• The dates of execution and registration
• The type of deed and its stated value
• The parties: the executant who signed and the claimant who benefits
• Document number, year and registering office

The sequence matters more than any single item. Reading from the oldest row shows the whole chain at once.

Start with the oldest row and go forward. The buyer in one sale should appear as the seller in the next. A break in the sequence may point to inheritance, a partition or a missing deed, and the seller should supply the paper that explains it.

Next, pair each mortgage with a closing entry. Each mortgage, or deposit of title papers, needs a later release or discharge from the same lender. If none appears, the debt could still be running. Then the seller has to obtain a no-dues letter from the lender and get the release registered before the sale.

Look also for a registered agreement to sell signed in favour of a third person. Without a cancellation deed after it, that person might still claim a right to buy. Quote the document number to order a certified copy of any deed listed.

Gaps That No EC Fills

Only registered deeds enter the index, so several real risks never appear:

• Pending litigation, unless an order was sent for registration
• Family settlements, oral partitions and agreements nobody registered
• Claims by legal heirs who were omitted from an earlier sale
• Notices of acquisition by the government, and proposals to widen roads
• Arrears of electricity, maintenance or property tax
• A building that departs from its sanctioned plan

Other records fill these gaps. Courts hold suit files, the central mortgage registry lists loans, the local body keeps tax and khata data, and the planning authority has the sanctioned plan. An EC with no adverse rows is one finding inside a title report, not the report itself.

Papers of a project on this site that raise questions can be sent through the contact page, and the team will name the record to check. A short note with the project name is enough.