Buying and owning a property is often one of the biggest decisions of one’s life hence its important to have good knowledge about all the property related formalities so that your decision no where goes wrong and you are able to comply with all the legal requirements to own a property in India. So, the first and foremost legal formality that ought to be correct while buying a property is the number of legal documents required to buy/own a property in India.
Therefore, apart for checking for facilities like
Hospitals
Parks
Water and electricity supplies
Neighbourhood surroundings etc..
Complying with all the legal documents is also one of the most important and major factors while buying a property.
THE LEGAL DOCUMENTS ESSENTIAL AND REUIRED WHILE BUYING A PROPERTY IN INDIA:
To avoid any kind of legal hassles make sure you check all the documents related to a property that you are about to invest your hard earned money into.
The list of legal documents that need to be considered before buying or looking to buy property are given as under:
- Title Deed of the Property
- It is one of the most important things to check for. As we all know, nobody can transfer better title than he himself has. A seller cannot transfer his property to a prospective buyer if the title isn’t perfect and free from any constraints or defects.
- Any person who claims himself as the seller of a property does not have the authority to sell the property if the property is not in his name and he doesn’t hold any good title over the said property.
- To make sure that the seller owns the Title of the property, you can cross check at the Sub-Registrar’s office.
- The buyer is entitled to receive all title documents of the property and the title document can be asked for properties that are extremely old, title documents that are prepared thirty years prior to the date of the title search need to be traced.
- It is important to see and check that the title of the property should be free of any disputes over the ownership of the property.
- The title deed lets buyers ascertain ownership rights The seller should be the actual owner of the property. Before buying property, you should also ascertain whether the seller has the ownership of the property or just has its development rights.
- Encumbrance Certificate of the Property:
- It is very important and crucial to know whether the property is free from any legal dues Like in the case of title search, even encumbrances over the property can be searched for at the Sub-Registrar’s office.
- At the office information about all the background about the property concerned, as to whether there is any mortgage, or any third party claim, liens etc. Is also available and can be provided.
- Its important to take care when buying or investing in a mortgaged property.
- The encumbrance certificate (EC) is sought because it would have a record of all the transactions done during a stipulated period of time over the property concerned.
- The sale deed in duplicate needs to be submitted for obtaining an EC.
- A form needs to be filled for obtaining the Encumbrance Certificate and submitted to the nearest Sub-Registrar office.
- Master Plan
- More often than not you will come across sellers or builders of properties who often claim certain infrastructural development at the place where the property is situated. Various claims like a shopping mall will be built, schools would be constructed, highways and metros would be constructed often hold no ground and they are merely said to entice more and more buyers.
- Before buying a property, one should closely inspect the master plan of the area concerned and ascertain for themselves whether these claims would actually see the light of the day.
- These master plans of the area can be obtained from the local town planning department of your city. It is also important for you to carefully check the land use zone as per the master plan for the property.
- House Plan Approval of the Property:
- It is highly essential that you ensure that the place where your property is located has been approved and also verify whether the building plan has been approved or not.
- You should also inspect and see whether any building bye-laws are violated.
- The building planning and the layout should be in accordance with the guidelines of the National Building Code of India.
- The layout also needs to be in accordance with the norms of GRIHA (Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment).
- Agriculture to Non-Agricultural Land Conversion Certificate of the property:
- It is essential for you to see to it that the plot that you are buying is not classified as agricultural land. Any land which is designated as an agricultural land can’t be used for residential purposes, if it is so done, then it will be considered illegal.
- Therefore, if you have reasons to believe that the plot you are purchasing used to be an agricultural property, ensure that you are provided with a conversion certificate of the land issued by the appropriate revenue authorities.
- A conversion certificate is needed to change the purpose of land use from agricultural to non-agricultural. The town planning department of the concerned city needs to issue a No objection Certificate for use of agricultural land for non-agricultural purposes.
- Land Use Certificate of the Property:
- Constructing a property for residential purposes in a commercial zone is illegal. So, in order to make sure that the property you are buying is a residential and not a commercial one, you need to apply to the development authorities of your respective city to verify the same that the residential property that you are planning to buy is in the residential zone and not in the commercial, agricultural or industrial zones.
- Residential properties shouldn’t be bought for commercial purposes without the approval of the urban development authorities. Thanks to “Zoning” you won’t be surprised if one fine day you get to know that you bought a plot for residential purposes in a commercial zone and that too without the approval of the authorities concerned and your plot is being demolished by them.
- No Objection Certificate of the Property:
No objection certificates should be obtained wherever necessary. It is important that the seller of the property should provide you with a copy of the urban non ceiling no-objection certificate and NOCs for water, electricity etc. as well.
- Commencement Certificate of the Property:
- This certificate is essential for any construction of a property to commence. This certificate is issued by the town planning department after scrutinising the building layout, plan, superstructure etc.
- The builder should have all the necessary sanctions before he sets out to construct.
- Tax Receipts of the Property:
Tax receipts should be checked to ensure whether the seller of the property has paid all tax accruing on the property for the past 3 years to the authorities .Make sure you ask for previous receipts of property tax if you are buying a property that is being resold.
- Sale Deed:
Before executing a sale deed, the buyer should inspect and make sure that the property has a free title.
A Sale Deed is one of the most important legal documents. It is a proof that states that the property has been sold and the ownership of property has been transferred from the seller to the purchaser.
Before executing a sale deed all charges like property tax, electricity and water charges, maintenance and housing society charges
It is important for the sale to be compulsorily registered.
- Khata (Account) Certificate/ Extract of the Proerty:
Khata in English means “account”. It is essentially the account of a seller or the owner of the property.
A Khata extract is essential for buying property. This is of prime importance for not only transferring a property but also for the registration of the new property.
Other legal documents such as Completion Certificate (CC) , Power of Attorney, Probated Will, Occupancy Certificate (OC) etc. are essential at the time of buying property.