Property Title Verification — what to check before you pay, and why "I did not know" is no defence

What title verification actually is

Title verification answers two questions, and only two. Is the person offering to sell this property entitled to sell it? And what comes attached to the property that will survive the sale?

It is not a valuation, which tells you what the property is worth. It is not a survey, which tells you what is physically there. It is not the bank's own check, which protects the bank's security and not your ownership. And it is emphatically not the seller's assurance, however respectable the seller.

The reason it matters is structural. In Indian property law, a buyer does not get better title than the seller had. If a defect entered the chain three transfers ago and nobody noticed, it reaches you. If a co-owner never signed, their share was never sold. If a mortgage was never released, the bank's charge survives. None of those things announce themselves at the registry counter, and the sale deed will be registered anyway.

The rule that notice does not save you from

Most legal risks in property can be managed by asking the right question. This one cannot, and it is the reason a search beats a conversation.

Read that middle paragraph again. In most areas of law, a purchaser who acted in good faith and without notice gets some protection. Here, good faith does not help. You did not know there was a case; you are bound by its outcome all the same.

That is why "the seller said there is no dispute" is worth nothing as risk management. The seller may be lying, or may genuinely not know — a suit filed by one branch of a family against another over an old partition may never have been mentioned to the person now selling. The only protection is to look.

The chain of title — how far back, and why

The chain is the sequence of transfers by which the current owner came to own the property. Each link has to hold: every transferor must have been entitled to transfer, every co-owner must have joined, and every instrument that needed registration must have been registered.

The market and lending convention is thirty years, and most banks will not lend without a search covering at least that period. The reason is practical rather than statutory: thirty years is long enough to surface the defects that usually matter, and long enough to cover the periods over which possession-based claims mature.

Where a property has changed hands rarely — an old family house, an allotment from a development authority, agricultural land — going back to the original grant or allotment is better than stopping at thirty years, and often easier, because there are fewer links to trace.

What each link is checked for

• Was the transferor the owner? Trace it to the transfer before.
• Did everyone who had to sign, sign? Co-owners, joint holders, all heirs.
• Was it registered, and within time?
• Was the consideration paid and acknowledged?
• Any conditions or restrictions in the deed that survive — a right of way, a restrictive covenant, a lease, a life interest.
• Does the property description match from link to link? A schedule that changes shape between deeds is a warning.

What an encumbrance certificate does not show

The encumbrance certificate is the document most buyers have heard of, and it is genuinely useful. It is also routinely treated as though it settles the matter, which it does not.

The right-hand column is the point. An encumbrance certificate reports what was registered for the period searched. Some of the most damaging problems in Indian property are precisely the ones that were never registered — a suit, an unregistered tenancy, an equitable mortgage, an heir who never went to court but has not gone away either.

So the certificate is one input into a title opinion. It is not the opinion, and a transaction where somebody says "we have the EC, it is clear" has checked one box out of several.

Who can actually sell

Entitlement to sell is not the same as being in possession, holding the papers, or being the person everybody in the locality calls the owner.

• The person on the record — the name in the latest registered deed and in the revenue and municipal records. Where they differ, find out why before proceeding.
• Every co-owner. Joint ownership means every holder must join in the sale. A sale by one co-owner transfers that co-owner's share and nothing more — and a buyer who paid for the whole and received a share has a long road ahead.
• Capacity. Of age and of sound mind. Where a minor has a share, a sale generally requires the permission of the court through the guardian, and a sale without it is vulnerable.
• A company or firm — the authority to sell, the board or partners' resolution, and whether the person signing is authorised.
• An attorney — whether the power of attorney genuinely authorises a sale, is still subsisting, and is authenticated the way the law requires for presenting documents for registration. Our power of attorney guide sets out the traps in full, including that the power dies with the principal.
• A builder or developer — their own title to the land, and whether what they are selling is within what they are entitled to sell.

Inherited property

This is where the most difficult disputes start, because the paperwork often stopped a generation ago and the family arrangement was never recorded anywhere.

• Who the heirs are — a legal heir certificate or succession certificate as the case requires, and a family tree that accounts for everybody.
• Whether there is a will, whether it is the last one, and whether probate is required in the place where the property is.
• Whether a partition was ever recorded — a registered partition deed, a decree, or a family settlement. An informal division that everybody has honoured for thirty years is not a record.
• Whether every heir has joined the sale, including those living abroad and those who are estranged.
• Whether any heir is a minor, which changes the procedure.
• Mutation — whether the revenue and municipal records were ever updated after the death.

Under construction — and the RERA rule worth knowing

Buying from a builder changes what you check. The land title is the builder's, the project is regulated, and the money rules are different.

If a builder is asking for more than ten per cent of the cost before a written agreement for sale has been entered into and registered, that is not how the statute says it should work. It is worth knowing before you pay, because a "booking amount" of twenty-five per cent against an allotment letter is a very common ask and a much weaker position than the Act contemplates.

What else to check on an under-construction purchase

• The project's RERA registration and what the RERA portal shows about it — declared timelines, complaints, and whether registration is current.
• The builder's title to the land, which is a full chain of title exercise in its own right.
• The development agreement where the builder is developing somebody else's land, and what share the landowner retains.
• Sanctioned plans and approvals for the project, and whether the tower and unit you are buying are within them.
• Any mortgage over the project land, and whether your unit will be released from it.
• The payment schedule — whether it is linked to construction milestones rather than to dates.

Approvals and land use

A property can have a flawless chain of title and still be a bad purchase, because what is built on it was never permitted.

• Sanctioned building plan — and whether what stands matches it. Unauthorised floors and covered setbacks are extremely common and they travel with the property.
• Completion certificate and occupancy certificate, where the local law requires them. A building occupied without an OC is a live risk, not a technicality.
• Land use — that the zoning permits the use. Residential use of land zoned otherwise, or commercial use of a residential flat, both create exposure.
• Conversion, where agricultural land has been put to non-agricultural use.
• Setbacks, FAR and coverage against what was sanctioned.
• Environmental and fire approvals for larger buildings.

Possession and the twelve-year problem

Two people can hold different things: one holds the title, another holds the property. A buyer needs to know who is in occupation and on what basis, because possession has legal consequences of its own.

Under the law of limitation, a suit for possession based on title must be brought within twelve years from the point at which the possession of the other person becomes adverse. An owner who lets somebody occupy their property and does nothing about it for long enough can find the right to recover it barred. For a buyer, the practical questions are simpler:

• Who is physically in the property today?
• On what basis — as owner, tenant, licensee, caretaker, family member?
• Since when, and is there anything in writing?
• If a tenant, is the tenancy protected under the local rent law, and what would it take to get vacant possession?
• Has the seller ever taken steps against an occupant, and what happened?

What we check

Red flags that should stop you

What the report gives you

You get a written report, not a verbal "it looks fine". It contains:

• The chain of title set out link by link, with each deed identified by date and registration particulars.
• The encumbrance position for the period searched, with any entry explained.
• The litigation search result.
• Who is entitled to sell, and who must sign for the transfer to be complete.
• The approvals and land use position, and any mismatch between what is sanctioned and what stands.
• Outstanding dues identified.
• The risks found, each one stated plainly, with whether it is curable and what curing it would involve.
• What we would want done before completion — the conditions we would advise you to insist on.

Time and cost

The cost varies with how far back the chain has to be traced, how many transfers there are, and which offices the records sit in. We quote once we know the property, and government search and certificate fees are shown as separate lines because they are not ours.

How to order it — six steps

1. Tell us the property. Where it is, what it is — flat, plot, house, agricultural land — and whether it is ready or under construction.
2. Send whatever the seller has given you. Photographs on WhatsApp are fine. Even an incomplete set tells us a great deal on the first read.
3. We tell you the scope, the time and the cost. Including the search period we recommend and why. You approve before we start.
4. We search. Registry, revenue and municipal offices, litigation, approvals and dues.
5. You get the written report — the chain, the findings, the risks, and what we would want done before completion.
6. We talk it through, then you decide. And you pay after the report is in your hands.