After the Sale Deed: Getting the Khata and Property Records Into Your Name in Bangalore

A purchaser who walks out of the registration office with a sale deed is the owner in law. The civic file, however, may keep naming the seller for months. Closing that gap is called mutation, and for most homes in Bangalore it usually means a khata transfer. The sections below follow the process from the deed to the final check.

Why There Are Two Steps

At the sub-registrar, the deed is signed and the buyer pays stamp charges and the registration fee. Title then passes. The second step is purely administrative: the body that maintains the property file swaps the seller's name for the purchaser's.

Each step has its own purpose and its own paper. The registered deed proves title, while the khata, or a fresh RTC for land, shows who is liable for tax and backs up the deed without replacing it.

Judgments from several courts say that a mutation entry cannot confer ownership or take it away. So a buyer wants both papers. The deed gives ownership, and the mutation gets the civic body to recognise it.

If the Seller Stays on Record

When the record still shows the seller, trouble builds gradually:

• Demands for tax continue to be addressed to the previous owner
• A resale inside the city is blocked, because the deed cannot be registered without an e-khata held by the owner
• Lenders insist that the borrower hold the khata before they advance money against the home
• Moving electricity and water connections depends on the corrected record
• A building plan for a plot is sanctioned for whoever appears on the khata

Sellers may relocate, fall ill or stop answering calls, and an office can ask for papers only they possess. A transfer finished in the weeks after the deed escapes all that.

Who Updates Which Record

The authority depends on place and property type. Here are the usual combinations:

• Flats, houses and sites in the city corporations use the e-khata on e-Aasthi, and the corporation, which reports to the Greater Bengaluru Authority, does the update
• Sites in BDA layouts that the authority still holds carry a BDA khata, updated by the Bangalore Development Authority
• Properties in panchayat areas are recorded through Forms 9 and 11A on e-Swathu, updated by the gram panchayat
• Farmland is held in the RTC and the mutation register on Bhoomi, updated by the revenue department via the taluk office

A good number of projects on the outskirts are administered by a panchayat or a municipality, not a corporation. Look at the deed and at the seller's current entry to find out which one applies, and do so before registration since each authority asks for different papers.

How It Runs Within the City

For property under a city corporation, the seller's final e-khata forms part of registration itself. Kaveri 2.0 talks to e-Aasthi, which means the registered deed's particulars reach the property file electronically. The mutation to the purchaser then starts, and a short window opens for any objections.

Even so, the purchaser has work to do. Do the following in sequence:

1. Check on the portal that a mutation request has been created for the property ID
2. Verify with Aadhaar, and attach any paper the office asks for
3. Pay the fee online
4. Keep an eye on the request till approval
5. Then download the e-khata and go through each field

If nothing starts on its own, the buyer can apply directly through the e-Aasthi portal. This often happens with inheritance, gifts, court decrees and deeds registered before the two systems were connected. Those applications face a longer window for objections, and they require documents that support the claim.

What It Costs and What to Carry

A city corporation takes two per cent of the stamp duty the buyer paid, together with modest processing fees. For a home bought at Rs. 1 Crore this lands between Rs. 10,000 and Rs. 11,000, give or take. It is paid once and has no link to the annual property tax.

The office generally expects the following papers:

• Registered deed of sale
• The e-khata of the seller, with its property ID
• Latest receipt for property tax
• Encumbrance certificate reflecting the sale
• Buyer's identity papers: Aadhaar and PAN
• Occupancy certificate when the flat is in a new building
• For inherited property: death certificate with family tree, or the will

Dues on property tax have to be cleared first. Arrears left by the seller follow the property and not the person, so it is wise to check receipts before releasing the final instalment. Panchayat and BDA charges are fixed by those bodies, so ask the office that handles the case.

A New Flat From a Builder

When a block is first built, individual flats have no khata. A single khata covers the land under the name of the builder or the landowner. After the occupancy certificate is issued and the flat deeds are registered, the record is divided, and every flat gets its own.

Builders usually take care of this for all owners at once and recover a fee through the cost sheet. Ask what the fee includes and by what date the personal e-khata will arrive. Holding it early is the safest position, because selling or taking a top-up loan relies on it.

Farm Land and Revenue Sites

For land recorded with the revenue department, the registration office forwards the particulars of the deed to the taluk office. Staff there send a notice, wait for objections and then update the mutation register. Next, a new RTC (the pahani) is issued on Bhoomi to the new owner.

Download the RTC afterwards and read the owner's name, survey number and extent. Keep the mutation extract in the title file. For a purchase of only a fraction of a survey number, the extent in the new entry should agree with the sketch drawn up prior to registration.

What a Khata Proves and What It Does Not

An updated khata means the corporation or panchayat has recognised the change and will bill the purchaser. A dispute over ownership remains untouched by it, and so does any defect in title. When examining a seller's papers, read it alongside the deed and the encumbrance certificate.

Moving to e-khata does not alter a property's legal category either, so a B-khata stays B-khata. The status, ID, dimensions and owner appear on it, and each item is worth comparing with the deed.

After the Transfer

A few follow-up jobs complete a city purchase:

1. Scan and store the registered deed
2. Follow the mutation and pay the fee
3. Download the e-khata and check name, address, area and property number against the deed
4. Pay the coming year's property tax as the new owner
5. Shift electricity and water connections
6. Tell the housing society, and the lender if there is a loan

A slip found early is fixed with one request. The same slip found at resale holds up the sale. The team helps buyers who purchased through us, and the contact page is how to reach it.