Ten Legal Documents to Verify Before You Buy a Home in Bangalore
Hidden legal defects rarely show up during a site visit. In Bangalore they tend to be recorded in files kept by sub-registrars, civic bodies and courts, and no single paper reveals all of them. Ten documents between them answer the questions that matter, and this article takes them one at a time: the doubt each settles, the office that holds it and the trouble a gap points to. Apartments, resale flats, houses and plots are all covered.
Start With the Reason for Ten
Consider what the seller's latest deed can tell you. It proves a purchase happened. It does not prove that the person who sold earlier had a right to sell, that the structure was built within its permission, or that no bank or court has a hold on it.
Those doubts fall into three families. Three papers settle who owns the property and how the deal is recorded. Three more settle whether the building is lawful and listed with the municipality, and four others settle whether anyone besides the seller has a claim. Lawyers read all ten as one set, and a lender repeats some of it when a loan is involved.
Papers That Settle Ownership and the Contract
This family answers a plain question: can this person sell, and is the sale being papered correctly?
1. The title chain
Ask for every deed from the earliest one still traceable, known as the mother deed, up to the seller's own. Bangalore lawyers like to see about 30 years. Each link has to be a registered instrument: a sale deed, a gift, a partition, a release or a will accompanied by family papers.
Read the names, survey numbers, areas and boundaries across the whole run, since they should stay the same. Trouble looks like a deed missing from the sequence, a co-heir who never gave up a share, or a sale that rested on authority granted through a power of attorney. Land converted from farming also needs revenue entries plus the conversion order.
2. The encumbrance certificate
This is the sub-registrar's statement of recorded dealings on the property across a period you choose. In Karnataka it can be applied for through Kaveri Online Services. A Form 15 certificate lists whatever transactions were found, and a Form 16 certificate confirms that none were.
Choose the same 30-year window as the title chain and run it to this month. Any mortgage on the list ought to be followed by an entry showing its release. Do not expect it to disclose suits, unregistered agreements or dues owed to the municipality, because it covers registered documents alone.
3. The sale agreement and the final deed
Only a stamped, registered sale deed passes ownership. The agreement signed before it records the price, the payment schedule, the handover date and the penalties for default. For RERA-registered projects, a promoter may not take more than a tenth of the price before registering that agreement.
Hold the property schedule in the agreement up against the deeds and the building plan. For a flat, test the carpet area, the buyer's share in the land and the parking space described. Karnataka duty on homes above Rs. 45 Lakhs is 5%, which becomes about 5.6% after cess and surcharge. Registration is a further 2%.
Papers That Settle Whether the Building Is Lawful
Good title does not turn an unapproved structure into a legal one. These checks compare what has actually been built with what the authorities allowed.
4. The approved building plan
Permission comes from the city corporation inside Greater Bengaluru and from the local planning authority outside. Walk the building with the plan and count floors, flats on each floor, setbacks and parking bays. Any addition beyond the drawing has no permission, however clean the ownership record is.
Plots need the conversion order for the land together with a layout the planning authority has approved, showing the site number and measurements being sold. For a project that is still being built, the Karnataka RERA registration should be in place, and the plan filed there should be the one on display in the sales office.
5. The occupancy certificate
Once the authority has inspected the completed building against the plan, it grants an occupancy certificate (OC) declaring the building fit to use. Permanent electricity and water supply for a new building hinge on this document, and a later resale is smoother with it.
Record the OC number and date, and verify that it names the tower and floor in question, because big projects are certified in instalments. A builder's possession letter is something different and cannot replace it. If an older flat predates strict enforcement and has no OC, a lawyer should say in writing what that means for the home loan and khata.
6. Municipal tax and khata
Annual property tax is paid to the civic body, and arrears go with the property to the next owner. Gather receipts for several years and the present one, then compare the name, built-up area and use shown on them with the deeds.
Inside the corporation area, a final e-khata becomes necessary to register a sale. It is only a tax record, so it proves nothing about title, but it places the property on the A or B register. Banks mostly lend on the former and refuse the latter, so find out before handing over an advance.
Papers That Settle Whether Anyone Else Has a Claim
Four last checks look outward: at occupants, co-owners, litigants and neighbours.
7. Leases
A sale leaves a tenant's rights untouched. Under the Transfer of Property Act, 1882, the buyer becomes the new landlord on the same lease terms. Ask for each rental or lease agreement, along with the deposit in hand and the record of rent paid.
A lease longer than a year needs registration, and then it shows on the EC. Let the sale agreement spell out whether the flat is delivered empty or tenanted, and which party returns the deposit.
8. The joint development agreement
In a joint development agreement (JDA) the landowner supplies land and the builder erects the homes, which both sides then divide. Confirm that the flat you are offered belongs to the portion of whoever is selling it.
The JDA and the builder's power of attorney, if any, should be properly registered and valid. RERA treats a landowner selling flats out of a share as a promoter too, so everyone holding rights in the land should sign the agreement for sale, directly or by authorisation.
9. Court cases
Anyone who buys while a suit about the property is pending takes it subject to the final judgment, whether or not the buyer knew. The principle is called lis pendens and comes from section 52 of the Transfer of Property Act, 1882. Since an EC never lists suits, run an independent search.
Use the eCourts portal under the seller's name and those of prior owners, and read Karnataka's RERA portal, where complaints against a project are listed. The seller should also sign a statement that nothing is pending in the form of a case, an attachment or an acquisition notice. A CERSAI search reveals whether a lender already holds the property as security.
10. The survey
The land on the ground must equal the land on paper. A licensed surveyor can measure a plot or independent house against the schedule in the deed, the sketch from the survey and the sanctioned layout. Any shortfall in area, paper-only road or neighbour's wall across the boundary should be resolved before registration.
With a flat, the matching exercise compares the carpet area promised in the agreement and the buyer's land share recorded in the deeds. Sites near lakes, storm water drains or high-tension lines also face buffer rules. One visit carrying the approved plan answers most of these points.
Tying the Ten Together
Names, survey or site numbers, extents and boundaries should repeat consistently in all ten. A mismatch between any two is the most frequent first hint of a problem, and it is one a buyer can notice before the lawyer does.
Collect the lawyer's written view ahead of any payment beyond a token, and make that token refundable if the title proves defective. At the same time, test the loan and upfront cash in the EMI calculator, since the lender's legal and technical teams review the file afterwards. Buyers based abroad can find their rules in the NRI section, and the contact form reaches our team for questions about a particular project.
