• How to buy a property (plot in India, Uttar Pradesh) - A step by step guide?

Hello,
 I am looking to buy a piece of land in Noida,Uttar Pradesh, I'm doing it for the first time and I don't really have any reliable guidance. What documents do I have to check and ask for before buying the property and what documents do I have to show/deposit. Can I get a step by step guidance on that?
 Regards!
Asked 6 years ago in Property Law
Religion: Hindu

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11 Answers

Hello sir , kindly provide more details about what kind of land are you buying .. Residential or agricultural ?

Hemant Chaudhary
Advocate, Gurgaon
4630 Answers
67 Consultations

4.9 on 5.0

1) check whether seller has original chain of documents

2) take 30 years title search through a lawyer to check whether title is clear and marketable

3) check whether land is not subject to any reservation

4) check whether property taxes are paid till date

5) apply for bank loan for purchase of land

6) bank will do due diligence before sanctioning loan

Ajay Sethi
Advocate, Mumbai
95533 Answers
7656 Consultations

5.0 on 5.0

In India, the real estate sector often pilfers with the law governing it. Therefore, it is advisable for land buyers to check for the following factors thoroughly and even get them examined by a legal expert before making the actual purchase:

The Deed Title: Check if the deed title is in the name of the seller and he has the full right to sell it. Insist upon looking at the original and not just a photocopy.

Encumbrance Certificate: This document can be procured from the sub-registrar's office where the deed is registered. It declares that the land is free of any legal hassle and unpaid dues.

Property Tax Receipts and Bills: Ask for the originals again and ensure all the payments have been made as this could lead to legal complications and more expenditure in the future.

Apart from these, you must also check that the loans on the land are repaid with a release certificate issued by the bank and get the property valued for the exact land measure.

Documentation

To purchase a piece of land, the following documents are required from the seller's end:

Original Land Deed of the current owner, known as the 7/12 document and also the previous owners with the proper names on the title.

An Encumbrance Certificate from the Sub-registrar's office for the last 30 years at least.

Release Certificate from the bank, stating that the loan on the land has been completely repaid.

Original property tax receipt and other bills relating to the plot.

For the buyer, the documents required include:

The Title Deed after it has been transferred to the buyer's name written by a Government licensed Document writer.

Receipt from payment of stamp duty charges: Now, you can get your land registered in the sub-registrar's office or have your name added in the village office records, as may be the case.

House Plan Approval: The State Municipality Act requires that a prior sanction be obtained by a person who wants to undertake construction activity for building a new house or modifying an existing one. The process has been made automated in most states and isn't time consuming. Your contractor, engineer or architect needs to take care of this. The architect needs to submit the Building Plan along with a prescribed fee for getting the building plan approval done.

Laksheyender Kumar
Advocate, Delhi
734 Answers
2 Consultations

4.8 on 5.0

1. First step will be to verify the Company/Builder/Society Credentials.

If its a Society then look whether it is registered with govt or not.

If its a Company look if that company is registered under Companies Act at any Registrar of Companies ( for UP at Kanpur RoC ).

2. Ask for all documents like :

1. Sale-deed mentioning name of farmers and Company/Builders clearly.

2. Dhakhil Kharij of land on Builders or Companies name.

3.Khasra-Khatauni mentioning gata nos, area of land and name of seller.

4.You Should look out for the Approved Map by Competent Authority ( Development Authority or Zila Panchayat ).

3. look for the Dhakhil Kharij on your own after getting Gata Nos from Builder.

4.If you are satisfied with ownership of Land.. then see if 143 of Land has been done or not.

Form 143 means Change of Land Use as you cant build a house on a Agricultural Land. And also after 143, you cannot do a Dakhil Kharij.

Devajyoti Barman
Advocate, Kolkata
22994 Answers
501 Consultations

5.0 on 5.0

1. You may not get concrete suggestions by any lawyer without seeing the documents physically that too originals must be compared with the zexox copies. Any way the following information is must be followed beside consult any lawyer who is well versed in this filed and get legal advise.

2. Karnataka clears RERA rules, excludes projects completed 60% or more

These rules may be called the Karnataka Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Rules, 2017.

1. Which are the documents to check before a property transaction?

There are two kinds of documents—primary and secondary documents of title. Primary documents of title are the most essential documents related to the property. They show the ownership history of the property being sold.

Some of the secondary documents of title help to corroborate the information mentioned in the primary documents of title. The other secondary documents help the buyer to assess whether the building is compliant with the regulations of various agencies and if it has been built according to plan.

2. General list of documents for all properties

i. Primary documents of title

• Parent deed

This is the Sale deed, Gift deed, Partition deed, Allotment letter or similar, by which the present owner/owners have acquired the title for the property. This document is also referred to as the Mula Pathra and includes the unbroken flow of the title up to the present owner.

Tracing of the title should always begin with the earliest available document, record or order by which a Court or Government or a statutory authority has given the rights to the property to its first owner. Then, documents which identify the subsequent owners of the property through an unbroken sequence of legal acts up to the present owner, i.e. the seller, should be traced.

At times, many of these documents may have been lost over time; in such instances, the buyer should look at the earliest registered document available with the seller and, with the help of a lawyer, trace the title up to the present owner. Since almost all properties in Bengaluru have their roots in agriculture, it is possible for the lawyer to establish whether the property has clear titles and can be legally sold by means of the secondary documents mentioned below.

ii. Secondary documents of title

• Building plan sanction

In case of apartments and individual houses, you need to have a Building Plan Sanction issued by the BBMP, BDA or the village panchayat for properties under their jurisdiction.

For vacant sites in layouts, you need to check for the layout plan sanction, issued by the plan-sanctioning authority. For builder-developed independent homes, apart from the layout plan sanction, you need to have building plan sanction from the BBMP or village Panchayat, under whose jurisdiction the property falls.

• Khata

The Khata certificate is issued by the BBMP, the BDA or a village panchayat in the name of the present owner or owners. There is no specific mention of the term Khata in the Karnataka Municipal Corporation Act of 1976; this is only an assessment register which compiles all the details of each property in the city. The term Khata is a colloquial term and literally means an ‘account’. Thus, the Khata is an account of every person who owns a property in the city. Each property will have a Khata. Each Khata has two parts: the Khata certificate and the Khata extract.

a. Khata certificate

A Khata certificate is obtained for the registration of any new property after paying the registration fee. This certificate mentions that a particular property number ‘N’ is held in the name of person ‘X’. This certificate is required for applying for a water connection, electricity connection, trade licence and building licence. The Khata certificate is given by the BBMP only to the owner of the property or to his legal heirs, and is used for the purpose of paying taxes.

b. Khata extract

A Khata extract is a document issued by the BBMP that states the name of the property owner, details of the property, such as plot size, built-up area etc. The owner can obtain this document on payment of `100/- along with a requisition letter to the Assistant Revenue Officer at the BBMP’s zonal office for the area where the property falls. Only owners can collect Khata extracts.

The Khata certificate and Khata extract are unofficially together called the ‘A Khata’.

• The ‘B Khata’

In order to include unauthorised layouts, revenue sites and buildings constructed in violation of by-laws into the property tax net, a provision was made under the Section 108A of the Karnataka Municipal Council Act. Under the new provision, the BBMP could collect property tax from such properties. The details of the property tax collected from such a building or apartment or site are maintained in a separate register, called the B register.

Encumbrance certificate

The Encumbrance certificate (EC) is a record that shows all the registered transactions pertaining to a property in a particular time period. It is issued by the sub-registrar’s office under whose jurisdiction the property falls. ECs are issued via Form 15 or Form 16. If mortgage, sale or any other deeds with respect to a property are registered in the specified period of time, then Form No. 15 is issued with the details of each transaction. If there have been no registered transactions during the specified period of time, the sub-registrar will issue a Form 16. While buying a property, you should insist on an EC for a period of at least 30 years.

Though EC is helpful in ensuring a clear and marketable title for the property, it does not provide the complete picture. Certain documents/transactions need not be registered, and these are not shown in the EC. Such documents and transactions include unregistered wills, unregistered power of attorney, unregistered agreement of sale and unregistered mortgages. Apart from these, litigation in courts and tax liabilities are also not shown in ECs. So while buying a property, do not rely solely on ECs for a clear title and look at other secondary documents.

• Commencement certificate

The Commencement or clearance certificate (CC) is given by the engineering department of the BBMP for the properties under construction in the city limits. Once the building licence is obtained and the foundation and peripheral columns have been constructed, the builder has to apply for the CC. Only after a CC is issued can a builder legally proceed to construct the complete building. Note that BBMP will not issue an OC on completion of the building, if the builder had not taken a CC at the beginning. See OC section below.

• Occupancy certificate

The Occupancy certificate (OC) is obtained at the end of the construction and is proof of plan sanction compliance. Once the builder applies for the OC, BBMP is supposed to conduct an inspection to confirm that the construction is compliant with the sanctioned plan.

Note: Thousands of apartments in Bengaluru do not have OCs and yet are occupied. One reason for this is that re-sale of flats and buildings with no OCs is not barred. Enforcement of OC is weak.

• Compounding fee receipt

If the construction varies from the sanctioned plan, this is an important receipt which shows that a compounding fee has been paid to the BBMP for regularising any deviation from the sanctioned building plan.

• Conversion certificate

This Conversion certificate (popularly known as DC conversion certificate) is issued by the Deputy Commissioner. It certifies that the property has been converted from agricultural land to a residential property.

• Tax paid receipts

These are receipts issued by the BBMP, BDA or village panchayat, recording the payment of taxes for the property.

• PTCL endorsement

The buyer can ask the builder/seller to get a Prevention of Transfer of Certain Lands Act (PTCL) endorsement. Either the Tehsildar or DC can issue this document. This is to ascertain that the property is not on land granted to person/persons belonging to the SC/ST communities.

• Land acquisition

The buyer can ask for an Endorsement from the Special Land Acquisition Officer of the BDA, BBMP, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB), Karnataka Housing Board (KHB), Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor Project and others, confirming that there are no acquisition proceedings underway with respect to the property being purchased.

• Family tree

This document shows the genealogical tree in the form of a flow chart, with the names and age of the members of the family of the present and past owners of the property being sold. It also indicates whether the persons mentioned in it are living or dead; it is certified by the Village Accountant or the Revenue Inspector.

• General power of attorney

A general power of attorney (GPA) is a notarised document which empowers another person to act as your legal representative. A GPA executed by a person living outside India should be notarised in the country of origin and stamped in India within four months of being notarised. Within India, it is enough if the GPA is notarised. GPA had to be registered earlier; however, the Supreme Court has ruled that it is sufficient if the GPA is authenticated by a notary public.

As a buyer, you need to ensure that the GPA is valid, not revoked and is provided by the person who has the legal right to give the same.

3. Documents for scrutiny for apartments

i. Joint development agreement & GPA

In recent times, the most popular method for building apartments is by way of a Joint Development agreement (JDA). This is an agreement signed between the landowner and the developer, where the landowner gives the land to the developer to build and sell apartments; in return, he gets a fixed set of apartments to sell. The landowner issues a GPA to the developer.

ii. Sharing agreement

The Sharing agreement shows the landowner’s share and developer’s share in a JDA. This helps the buyer clarify whether the apartment/property for sale belongs to the developer’s or the landowner’s share and check the validity of the seller.

iii. Call for inspection of original documents

Although the builder usually has all the original documents in his possession, he may have pledged the property to a bank as collateral. In this case he may not have the originals. If so, the builder has to provide a No-objection certificate (NOC) from the bank prior to the registration of the property, stating that the money goes towards paying off the loan and the property in question is free of mortgage. When buying the landowner’s share of the property, this scrutiny is slightly less crucial since the landowner’s share is typically free of mortgage in most JDAs.

4. Documents for scrutiny for properties with an agricultural past

i. Pahani or RTC

The Pahani is a revenue record of tenancy and cultivation (RTC) that describes the rights, tenancy and crops details for the property, such as owners’ details, area of the land, land revenue details, water rate, soil type, nature of possession of the land, liabilities, crops grown etc. Ideally, the seller should have the RTCs from 1969 to date, and all the mutations should be mentioned in the RTCs.

ii. Record of rights and index of lands

This document contains details such as the extent of the property, names of the owners etc. Although this document has been discontinued by the Revenue department, it is useful in the tracing of titles. There are reports that it is being unofficially issued, however.

iii. Mutation extract

The Mutation Extract is akin to an ‘agricultural khata’ and is issued by the village’s official accountant or Tehsildar. It contains an extract from the mutation register with relevant details, such as those regarding the previous owner, present owner, the mode of acquisition of the property by way of sale or inheritance, and the total extent of the property.

iv. Tippani and Podi extract

Tippani is a hand-drawn sketch from the records of the Survey department with respect to a property contained in a single survey number that is not bifurcated into sub-survey numbers issued by the Survey department. For instance, Hissa Podi extract refers to a sketch showing fragments within a survey number with sub-survey numbers such as 159/1, 159/2 etc.

v. Akarband extract

The Akarband indicates the total extent, boundaries and classifications of the property. This is issued by the Survey department.

vi. Village map

This document shows a clear map of the village in which the property is situated.

5. Documents for scrutiny for BDA sites

Whenever government acquires a land for development of a layout, the previous title is extinguished by law and title starts from the BDA’s acquisition of the property. The following documents should help in ascertaining the validity of the property papers.

i. Primary documents of title for BDA properties

• Allotment letter: Issued by the BDA in favour of the present owner if he/she is the original allottee

• Possession letter: Issued by the BDA in favour of the present owner recording the handing over of the possession of the property to the present owner.

• Lease-cum-sale deed executed and registered in favour of the allottee by the BDA.

• Absolute Sale Deed executed and registered in favour of the allottee by the BDA with respect to the property after 10 years from the date of the original allotment.

• Building Sanction Plan issued by the BDA (or by the BBMP if the building was constructed after it was handed over to the BBMP by the BDA) where a building has been constructed on the property.

The secondary documents of title for BDA sites are Khata, Tax paid receipts and EC, which have been explained in the list of general documents.

A thorough scrutiny and verification of the above-mentioned documents will enable you to ensure that the property that you are acquiring has a clear, marketable title and will help you to avoid fraudulent sales and lengthy litigation.

6. Buying a BDA site sllotted as compensation to original owners in return for land acquisition to create the layout

The BDA’s process of forming residential layouts from what is usually agricultural land includes an incentive scheme. This is to make it easy for landowners to voluntarily surrender land. For every acre that the BDA acquires, the landowner is to be given a 60 × 40 site.

In principle, this scheme works out well for the landowner because of the substantial change in land values once the layout is created and the market value appreciation of residential plots over time. However, this is where the process is different from that of a BDA site allotted to a regular applicant.

i. For the sake of convenience, the BDA registers it in the name of the Khatedar.

ii. Unlike the normally allotted BDA sites, where all previous titles and titular claims are extinguished and the new allottee becomes the owner, in the case of the compensatory sites, the situation is different. The land would typically be ancestral land, and many individuals can claim rights over the property, such as heirs, minors, etc. Note that this ‘ancestral’ status carries forward into the compensatory site as is.

iii. In some cases, if the original landowners were illiterate or short of cash even to register the compensatory site to transfer it to their name from the BDA, they would have then drawn up sale agreements with third parties or brokers. In such cases, it has been observed that sometimes the owners have gotten into agreements even before they are allotted the sites.

iv. These agreement holders then carry out the rest of the site acquisition formalities. They sometimes pay the money for the registering the site itself.

All this would have happened by the time you run into such a site, when you are prospecting.

What you need to do

Such sites can be identified through the allotment letter of the BDA itself, so always insist on seeing the allotment letter. A compensatory/incentive site will be mentioned as such. Note that you will not be able to spot the difference between a normally allotted BDA site and a compensatory site from a site plan map stone which is sometimes located at key street intersections in the layout. The allotment letter is needed.

If you are buying such a site, you need to obtain the same documents which will trace title claims, presence of minors, etc. as in the case of buying sites on land with agricultural roots, described earlier in this section. Bring the entire owner’s family tree into the scrutiny process.

Kishan Dutt Kalaskar
Advocate, Bangalore
6136 Answers
489 Consultations

4.8 on 5.0

Dear Concerned,

The most important document you need to consider is the FARAD or Mutation document of the property you are considering to buy - the Mutation should be on the name of the seller as mentioned in the Title documents, if there is difference of ownership details in mutation and title documents you may choose to leave the concerned property .

Best of Luck

Atulay Nehra
Advocate, Noida
1309 Answers
58 Consultations

5.0 on 5.0

Hello,

Ask the person to give you the last sale deed by means of which the present owner got the title.

Engage a local lawyer and ask him to get a title report for that piece of land.

As and when you get a clear title report you may purchase the same.

Get the sale deed drafted from a lawyer.

Regards

Anilesh Tewari
Advocate, New Delhi
18088 Answers
377 Consultations

5.0 on 5.0

1. First and foremost, while buying a property you have to see whether the title of the seller is free and marketable.

2. Seek copies of the complete chain of title and then conduct a title search in the office of sub-registrar to determine that the chain is complete.

3. It should also be found out that there is no litigation pending with respect to the property in any court.

4. Last but not least, engage a local lawyer and involve him in the process to vet all the documents.

Ashish Davessar
Advocate, Jaipur
30763 Answers
972 Consultations

5.0 on 5.0

First thing to keep in mind is that the Title of the property should be clear of all encumbrances and the owner should have valid rights to the property. Please check the title of the property in the registry before paying any sum. Get your agreement to sell drafted by an Advocate keeping in mind all the legal consequences. Get to know who is the owner of the property and make sure that you pay to the rightful owner/builder and not anyone else. Keep the receipts of payments with you forever. Also get your sale deed drafted and checked by a genuine Advocate only and not any agent. Make sure that the plot has not been sold to anyone else other that you. Also check as to in whose name mutation of property has been done and who pays the tax.

As far as your documents are concerned, you need to have your PAN card copy, Adhaar card copy, Photographs and consideration amount of course.

Hope this will suffice your need.

Anupam Kirti
Advocate, New Delhi
90 Answers
2 Consultations

4.9 on 5.0

To write the whole answer is not possible for me. As you may also write the question only not the situation

Please Call or whats app on (Nine seven one seven eight three two seven five five) to me. If you have further questions, If you would need advice for the same or have any challenges in the process,

Better advice can be given you only after have detail discussion with you. For further discussion & information about your case feel free contact me

Regards

Adv. Vikas Pandey

Vikas Pandey
Advocate, Delhi
26 Answers

4.0 on 5.0

It depends on the nature of property you propose to buy.

There are different documents required to be scrutinise for different types of property namely, flats/apartments, house property, landed property, vacant site etc.

You take the assistance of a lawyer when you choose to buy a particular property and seek his opinion as well advise to procure any other document to prove the genuineness of the property proposed to be bought.

T Kalaiselvan
Advocate, Vellore
85734 Answers
2266 Consultations

5.0 on 5.0

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