The Statutory Framework a Buyer Is Actually Operating In

Provision	What it means for a buyer
Registration Act, 1908 — Section 17	Instruments creating or extinguishing rights in immovable property of ₹100 and above must be registered
Registration Act, 1908 — Section 49	An unregistered instrument of that class does not affect the property and is inadmissible as evidence of the transaction, save for the limited purposes in the proviso
Registration Act, 1908 — Section 23	A document must ordinarily be presented for registration within four months of execution
Registration Act, 1908 — Section 34	The registering officer enquires into identity and execution. He does not enquire into title
Registration Act, 1908 — Section 33	A power of attorney executed outside India must be authenticated before a Notary Public, court, judge, magistrate, Indian Consul or Vice-Consul, or a representative of the Central Government
Transfer of Property Act, 1882 — Section 54	Sale of tangible immovable property of ₹100 and above can be made only by a registered instrument
Transfer of Property Act — Section 3	Constructive notice. Registration is notice of the instrument; possession is notice of the possessor’s title; wilful abstention from enquiry does not excuse
Transfer of Property Act — Section 41	The ostensible-owner protection applies only where the transferee took reasonable care to ascertain the transferor’s power to transfer
Transfer of Property Act — Sections 55(1)(a) and 55(2)	Seller’s duty to disclose material defects the buyer could not discover with ordinary care, and the implied covenant that the interest transferred subsists
Transfer of Property Act — Section 53A	Part performance. A person in possession under an unregistered agreement may resist dispossession, which is why possession must always be verified
Limitation Act, 1963 — Article 65 and Section 27	Twelve years for a suit for possession based on title, after which the right itself is extinguished — the basis of adverse possession claims
Limitation Act, 1963 — Article 61	Thirty years to redeem a mortgage — one reason the conventional title search runs thirty years and not twelve
Indian Stamp Act, 1899 — Sections 33 and 35	An instrument not duly stamped is inadmissible in evidence and is liable to be impounded, with penalty. An under-stamped deed anywhere in the chain is a live problem
Indian Stamp Act, 1899 — Section 18	Instruments executed outside India must be stamped within three months of first receipt in India
Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act, 1988, as amended in 2016	Property held benami is liable to confiscation without compensation, with prosecution of both the benamidar and the beneficial owner
Income-tax Act — Section 194-IA	Buyer must deduct tax at 1% where consideration or stamp duty value of immovable property (other than agricultural land) is ₹50 lakh or more
Income-tax Act — Section 195	Where the seller is a non-resident, TDS is governed by Section 195 at capital gains rates plus surcharge and cess, not by the 1% rate. A certificate under Section 197 is usually worth obtaining
Income-tax Act — Sections 50C and 56(2)(x)	Consideration materially below stamp duty value creates a tax charge on the seller and, separately, on the buyer
RERA, 2016 — Sections 3, 4, 11 and 13	Project registration, promoter disclosures, and the bar on taking more than ten per cent of the cost as advance without a registered agreement for sale
Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 — Sections 43 and 45	Preferential and undervalued transfers by a corporate debtor can be avoided during the look-back period. Buying real estate from a distressed company is a specific risk
Companies Act, 2013 — Section 180(1)(a)	A company selling substantially the whole of its undertaking requires a special resolution. A board resolution alone may not be enough
FEMA and the Non-Debt Instruments Rules, 2019	NRIs and OCI cardholders may acquire immovable property in India other than agricultural land, plantation property and farmhouses. Other non-residents require RBI approval

The Section 41 point deserves emphasis, because it is the provision most often invoked by a defrauded buyer and most often lost. The protection is conditional on reasonable care having been taken. A buyer who ran no search, obtained no encumbrance position, never inspected possession and never verified the chain does not satisfy that condition, and the transfer remains voidable at the instance of the real owner.

The Six Heads of Enquiry

1. Title and the chain of ownership

We trace title backwards through every recorded devolution, ordinarily for thirty years, and reconcile each link — the mother deed, every subsequent conveyance, and every event that interrupted the chain. That includes sale, gift, relinquishment, partition, family settlement and exchange deeds; wills, probate, letters of administration, succession certificates and legal heir certificates; allotment letters, lease deeds and conveyance deeds issued by DDA, HSVP, the Noida, Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway Authorities, GDA and other development authorities; and mutation and revenue entries.

The questions that matter are whether each transferor had the title he purported to convey, whether every co-owner and legal heir has joined, whether any share belongs to a minor or a person under disability requiring court permission, whether a partition was ever effected or merely asserted, and whether the boundaries and area in the deed reconcile with the site plan, the revenue record and the ground.

Thirty years is not a convention without a reason. Twelve years is the limitation for a suit for possession on the basis of title, but thirty years is the period for redemption of a mortgage under Article 61 — so a shorter search can leave a subsisting redeemable mortgage entirely undetected.

2. Encumbrances, mortgages and charges

Searches of the Sub-Registrar’s records and certified copies of the chain instruments — in Delhi through DORIS, in Uttar Pradesh through IGRS, in Haryana through the registration and Jamabandi portals. Encumbrance Certificates where the State issues them. A CERSAI search, which is the step most transactions omit and which is the only central record of equitable mortgages created by deposit of title deeds. A charge search on the MCA portal where the seller is a company or LLP, covering CHG-1 filings and satisfaction of charges. Attachment orders, tax recovery attachments, injunctions and lis pendens. And the simple, revealing question of whether the original title deeds can actually be produced for inspection, and if not, where they are.

3. Litigation, insolvency and regulatory action

Searches of the e-Courts records, the concerned District Court, the High Court and where necessary the Supreme Court. NCLT and IBBI searches where the seller is a corporate entity, because a transfer within the look-back period can be avoided under Sections 43 and 45 of the Code. Revenue court, Debts Recovery Tribunal and consumer forum proceedings. Acquisition, land pooling and alignment notifications. And, where the value or the risk profile justifies it, publication of a public notice inviting objections.

4. Construction, land use and statutory approvals

Title can be perfect while the building is unlawful. Sanctioned building plan and approved layout; completion certificate and occupancy certificate, and whether the structure as built corresponds to the plan as sanctioned; land use under the applicable master plan and any change-of-land-use permission; RERA registration of the project and of the agent, and the disclosures filed on the State RERA portal; the developer’s licence and zoning plan where the State licenses colonisers; fire safety, pollution control, lift and structural clearances for commercial and industrial premises; and, for leasehold authority plots, whether the lease subsists, whether transfer permission is required, and whether unearned increase is payable.

5. Dues, taxes and statutory liabilities

Property tax paid to date; electricity, water and maintenance arrears; society no objection certificate and share certificate for apartments; ground rent, lease rent and conversion charges on leasehold property; the adequacy of stamp duty on every prior instrument in the chain, because an under-stamped historic deed can be impounded and can obstruct the buyer’s own registration; benami indicators; and the correct treatment of TDS, which is 1% under Section 194-IA for a resident seller but a materially different computation under Section 195 where the seller is a non-resident.

6. Capacity and authority of the seller

Identity verified against PAN, Aadhaar, passport and the photographs on prior deeds. For companies and LLPs, the object clause, the board or shareholder resolution, and the Section 180(1)(a) position. For trusts and societies, the powers in the instrument and any requirement of sanction. For partnership firms and Hindu undivided families, the authority of the executing partner or karta and the legal necessity for the transfer. And, wherever a power of attorney is involved, whether it is registered, whether it authorises sale in terms, whether a foreign-executed POA has been authenticated as Section 33 of the Registration Act requires and stamped in India within the period allowed by Section 18 of the Stamp Act — and whether the principal is alive, because a power of attorney determines on the death of the principal.

Encumbrance Certificates and Registry Searches: An Honest Assessment

This is where clients are most often given false comfort, so it is worth being direct.

An Encumbrance Certificate is a statement of what has been registered with a particular Sub-Registrar, against a particular property description, for a particular period. It is useful. It is not a certificate of clear title, and it is not what it is commonly presented as.

What an EC or a registry search will not show:

• An equitable mortgage created by deposit of title deeds, which requires no registration and appears only on CERSAI
• Claims of co-owners, unpartitioned heirs and coparceners who never appeared on any deed
• Oral partitions and family arrangements, which are common and which surface only in litigation
• Pending litigation, unless a lis pendens has been separately registered
• A person in adverse possession, whose claim under Article 65 depends on facts on the ground and not on any record
• Tenancies, licences and part-performance possession under Section 53A
• Defects in the validity of a registered instrument — a forged deed is still a registered deed
• Unapproved construction, land use violations and want of an occupancy certificate, none of which are registry matters
• Anything indexed under a variant of the name or a different property description, which in older records is frequent

And a point specific to this region: Delhi does not issue Encumbrance Certificates in the form familiar from the southern States. Verification here is done by inspection of the Sub-Registrar’s registers and indices and by obtaining certified copies of the registered instruments, supplemented by revenue records and a CERSAI search. Anyone who offers to produce a Delhi “EC” of the kind issued in Karnataka or Tamil Nadu should be asked what exactly they intend to produce.

A search is therefore a floor, not a ceiling. The conclusions that matter come from reconciling the registry position against the revenue record, the physical possession, the approvals and the seller’s own documents — and from noticing what is missing.

SA / GPA / Will Properties: The Delhi Problem

A very large volume of property in Delhi is held not under a registered sale deed but under a package of an unregistered agreement to sell, a general power of attorney, a will and a receipt. It is transacted daily, at scale, and buyers are routinely told it is “how things are done here”.

The legal position is settled and has been since 2011. In Suraj Lamp & Industries Pvt. Ltd. v. State of Haryana, the Supreme Court held that a transaction of sale by way of SA/GPA/Will does not convey title and does not amount to a transfer under Section 54 of the Transfer of Property Act. Immovable property can be transferred only by a registered deed of conveyance. A power of attorney is an agency document; it creates no interest in the property, and it is revocable and terminates on the death of the principal.

What a buyer of such a property acquires is possession, a contractual claim against the seller, and a right — if the facts support it — to sue for specific performance within the limitation period. What he does not acquire is title. The practical consequences are that institutional finance is difficult, resale narrows to the same informal market, mutation and conversion are obstructed, and the position deteriorates rather than improves with time as the original chain of GPA holders becomes untraceable.

Some of these properties can be regularised — through the recorded owner executing a proper conveyance, through the route available for unauthorised colonies under the 2019 Delhi legislation and the PM-UDAY framework, or through conversion where the property is a DDA leasehold. Some cannot. We tell clients which category their property falls in before they pay, not after.

Delhi NCR: Where the Defects Actually Sit

Jurisdiction	The recurring issues
Delhi	DDA leasehold versus freehold status and pending conversion; SA/GPA/Will holdings; unauthorised and regularised colonies and the conveyance or authorisation slip position; Lal Dora and abadi deh land where revenue records and municipal permissions diverge; construction beyond sanctioned FAR; unsanctioned basements and additional floors
Noida, Greater Noida, YEIDA	Almost all allotments are leasehold from the Authority. Transfer requires the Authority’s permission and a transfer memorandum, all instalments and dues must be cleared, and possession is frequently handed over long before the lease deed is executed. Farmer additional-compensation litigation has historically clouded entire sectors
Gurugram and Faridabad	HSVP allotments with their own transfer conditions; licensed private colonies where the licence, the zoning plan and the EDC and IDC payment position all matter; commercial towers handed over without an occupancy certificate or a fire NOC
Ghaziabad and outer NCR	GDA sanction status; agricultural land whose conversion to non-agricultural use was never completed; ceiling law and consolidation entries on older revenue records; village land sold on the strength of a khasra number alone

Documents Examined, by Property Type

Freehold built property or plot
Current title deed and the full chain of prior deeds; mother deed; mutation record; property tax receipts; sanctioned plan; completion and occupancy certificates; approved site plan; latest utility bills; possession status.

Leasehold plot allotted by a development authority
Allotment letter; lease deed; possession letter; conveyance deed where executed; the Authority’s transfer permission and transfer memorandum for each prior transfer; no dues certificate; ground rent and lease rent receipts; unearned increase position.

Apartment in a group housing project or society
Builder–buyer agreement or society allotment; sale deed or conveyance; share certificate; society no objection certificate and maintenance dues clearance; RERA registration number and portal disclosures; occupancy certificate for the tower; sanctioned plan; the land title on which the project stands, and any mortgage created by the developer over the project land.

Agricultural land
Khasra, khatauni, jamabandi, khewat and khatoni entries; girdawari; mutation register; the record of tenancy and cultivation; ceiling and consolidation position; land use and any conversion order; and the eligibility of the purchaser to hold agricultural land at all, which is a live restriction for NRIs, OCI cardholders, companies and, in several States, for non-agriculturists.

Industrial or warehouse premises
Allotment and lease from the industrial development corporation; permitted activity under the lease; building plan sanction; consent to establish and consent to operate from the pollution control board; fire NOC; factory licence; power sanction load; and any environmental clearance conditions that will bind a successor.

Property devolved by inheritance
Death certificate; will and probate or letters of administration where applicable; succession certificate or legal heir certificate; the family tree with an affidavit; relinquishment or release deeds from every heir not joining the sale; and, for a Hindu undivided family or coparcenary property, the position of every coparcener including daughters, whose rights by birth in coparcenary property were confirmed by the Supreme Court in Vineeta Sharma v. Rakesh Sharma.

Where the seller is a company, LLP, trust or firm
Certificate of incorporation, memorandum and articles or the LLP agreement, trust deed or partnership deed; board and shareholder resolutions including the Section 180(1)(a) special resolution where applicable; MCA charge search; the register of charges; and NCLT and IBBI searches.

Red Flags

• Original title deeds unavailable, “with the bank”, or lost, with only photocopies offered
• A gap of years in the chain with no recorded instrument, or an unregistered link
• The recorded owner is deceased and succession was never formalised
• One heir selling where several exist, without registered relinquishments
• Possession with someone other than the recorded owner, and no explanation
• A power of attorney holder executing the deed with the principal unavailable or uncontactable
• Consideration materially below circle rate, or a request to take part of the price in cash
• Unusual haste, and pressure to pay a substantial advance before verification is complete
• Construction visibly exceeding the sanctioned plan, or no occupancy certificate ever obtained
• A project advertised or sold without a RERA registration number
• A corporate seller with recent losses, defaults, or any insolvency filing
• Agricultural land offered to a buyer who is not legally competent to hold it
• The seller’s identity documents not matching the name on the earlier deeds, with no supporting affidavit

The Process

Stage	Work	Indicative time
1	Scoping call, fixed fee quotation, engagement	Day 0
2	Requisition list issued; documents collected from the client and the seller; certified copies applied for where documents are missing	Days 1–3
3	Sub-Registrar searches and certified copies of the chain; revenue and mutation records; CERSAI search; MCA charge search	Days 3–8
4	Court, tribunal, NCLT and IBBI searches; RERA verification; approvals verified with the municipal or development authority	Days 5–10
5	Site inspection; boundary and area reconciliation against the deed and site plan; verification of actual possession; neighbourhood enquiry	Days 5–10
6	Public notice inviting objections, where advised	Optional, adds 15–21 days
7	Written Due Diligence Report, followed by a consultation	Days 7–15

Seven to fifteen working days is the normal range for a standard residential or commercial property. Agricultural land, industrial land, portfolios, and any property with a broken chain take longer, and the constraint is usually the responsiveness of the registry and the seller rather than the analysis.

What the Report Contains

An executive summary with a risk rating and a plain recommendation — proceed, proceed on conditions, or do not proceed. The chain of title set out link by link with document references. A findings table covering encumbrances, litigation, approvals, dues, possession and seller capacity. A schedule of every document examined and, separately, every document requisitioned but not produced — the second list is frequently the more informative. Each defect identified, with the remedy, the person who must effect it, and the payment milestone before which it must be effected. Conditions precedent to be built into the agreement to sell. Indemnity, escrow and milestone recommendations. And guidance on stamp duty, circle rate and the registration mechanics.

Common Mistakes

• Treating a registered sale deed as proof of the seller’s title, when Section 34 of the Registration Act confines the registering officer to identity and execution
• Relying on an Encumbrance Certificate alone, and never running a CERSAI search, so that an equitable mortgage by deposit of title deeds is missed entirely
• Searching twelve years rather than thirty, and leaving a redeemable mortgage undetected
• Paying a substantial advance before verification, so that the leverage to insist on rectification is gone
• Buying an SA/GPA/Will property in Delhi in the belief that it conveys ownership
• Not verifying who is in actual possession, and so acquiring the property with constructive notice of the possessor’s title under Explanation II to Section 3 of the Transfer of Property Act
• Ignoring an under-stamped instrument earlier in the chain, which remains liable to impounding
• Accepting an unregistered power of attorney, or a foreign POA that was never authenticated under Section 33 of the Registration Act and never stamped within three months of receipt in India
• Failing to obtain registered relinquishment deeds from every heir who is not joining the sale
• Buying an apartment without checking whether the developer has mortgaged the project land, and whether that mortgage has been released as to the specific unit
• Not verifying the RERA registration and the disclosures filed on the portal, and paying more than ten per cent before a registered agreement for sale
• Buying from a company on a board resolution alone, where Section 180(1)(a) required a special resolution
• Buying real estate from a distressed corporate seller without an IBC look-back assessment under Sections 43 and 45
• Deducting 1% under Section 194-IA where the seller is a non-resident and Section 195 applied, leaving the buyer personally liable for the shortfall with interest
• Structuring consideration below circle rate, triggering Sections 50C and 56(2)(x)
• An NRI or OCI purchaser agreeing to buy agricultural land, plantation property or a farmhouse, which the Non-Debt Instruments Rules do not permit
• Completing registration and never applying for mutation, so that the revenue record continues to show the seller
• Commissioning “verification” from a person introduced by the builder, the broker or the seller

How Delhi Legal Company Assists

• Title search and chain verification — thirty years as standard, extended where the chain requires it, with certified copies obtained directly from the registry
• Encumbrance verification — Sub-Registrar searches, ECs where issued, CERSAI, and MCA charge searches for corporate sellers
• Litigation and insolvency searches — district courts, High Court, NCLT, IBBI, DRT and revenue courts
• Approval and compliance verification — sanctioned plans, occupancy and completion certificates, land use, RERA registration and portal disclosures, developer licences, fire and pollution consents
• Physical verification — site inspection, boundary and area reconciliation, possession enquiry, and video walkthrough for clients abroad
• Written Due Diligence Report — referenced, defensible, with a clear recommendation and a defect-and-remedy schedule
• Public notice — drafting and publication where the risk profile justifies inviting objections
• Transaction documentation — agreement to sell with conditions precedent, sale deed, indemnities, escrow and payment milestones
• Stamp duty and registration — computation, e-stamping, presentation and appearance before the Sub-Registrar, and mutation thereafter
• Power of attorney for overseas clients — drafting, guidance on notarisation and apostille or consular authentication, and stamping and registration in India within the statutory period
• NRI tax and FEMA support — Section 195 computation, lower deduction certificate under Section 197, Forms 15CA and 15CB, and repatriation compliance
• Corporate and business due diligence — ROC, charges, shareholding, FDI reporting, contracts, litigation, tax and labour compliance, delivered as a red-flag report mapped to representations, warranties and indemnities
• Rectification and litigation support — deeds of rectification, declaratory and specific performance suits, and defence of title

Frequently Asked Questions

1. If the sale deed is registered, is the title not already proved?

A. No. Registration records that a transaction took place and that the executant appeared before the Sub-Registrar. Under Section 34 of the Registration Act, 1908, the registering officer enquires into identity and execution only. He has no power to determine ownership. A deed executed by a person with no title is registered in exactly the same way as one executed by the true owner, and transfers nothing.

2. Why is the title traced for thirty years and not twelve?

A. Twelve years is the limitation for a suit for possession based on title under Article 65 of the Limitation Act, 1963. But Article 61 allows thirty years for redemption of a mortgage, so a twelve-year search can leave a subsisting redeemable mortgage entirely undetected. Thirty years is the working standard, and where the chain contains an inheritance, a partition, a litigation or an authority lease we go back further, to the point at which title is genuinely clear.

3. Is an Encumbrance Certificate enough?

A. No. An EC reflects only what has been registered, against the property description searched, for the period searched. It will not show an equitable mortgage created by deposit of title deeds, an unpartitioned co-owner, an oral family arrangement, a person in adverse possession, a tenancy, pending litigation where no lis pendens was registered, or any construction or land use violation. It is one input among several.

4. Does Delhi issue Encumbrance Certificates?

A. Not in the form issued in the southern States. Verification in Delhi is done through inspection of the Sub-Registrar’s registers and indices and by obtaining certified copies of the registered instruments, supported by revenue records and a CERSAI search.

5. What is CERSAI, and why does it matter?

A. The Central Registry of Securitisation Asset Reconstruction and Security Interest of India maintains a central record of security interests, including mortgages created by deposit of title deeds. Such a mortgage requires no registration with the Sub-Registrar and will therefore not appear in an ordinary registry search. It is the single most commonly missed encumbrance.

6. Can I buy a property held on an agreement to sell, a GPA and a will?

A. You can pay for it, but you will not acquire title. In Suraj Lamp & Industries v. State of Haryana the Supreme Court held that SA/GPA/Will transactions do not convey title and are not transfers under Section 54 of the Transfer of Property Act. Immovable property is transferred only by a registered conveyance. What you acquire is possession and a contractual claim, with the difficulties in finance, resale and mutation that follow.

7. Can such a property ever be regularised?

A. Sometimes. Where the recorded owner is traceable and willing, a proper registered conveyance can be executed. Where the property lies in an unauthorised colony, the framework under the 2019 Delhi legislation and the PM-UDAY scheme may allow a conveyance deed or authorisation slip. Where it is a DDA leasehold, conversion may be available. Whether any of these routes is open depends on the specific facts, and it should be established before payment, not after.

8. Why do you insist on verifying who is in possession?

A. Because Explanation II to Section 3 of the Transfer of Property Act deems a purchaser to have notice of the title of whoever is in actual possession. If a tenant, a co-owner, a person claiming part performance under Section 53A or a person in adverse possession is on the property, you are fixed with notice of their claim whether or not you looked.

9. The seller says an old deed in the chain was under-stamped but it does not matter now. Is that right?

A. No. Under Sections 33 and 35 of the Indian Stamp Act, 1899, an instrument not duly stamped is inadmissible in evidence and is liable to be impounded, with duty and penalty recoverable. If that deed later needs to be produced to establish your chain, the deficiency becomes your problem.

10. The seller is abroad and will execute through a power of attorney. What do I check?

A. Whether the POA is registered; whether it expressly authorises sale of this property; whether it was authenticated as Section 33 of the Registration Act requires, before a Notary Public, court, magistrate, Indian Consul or Vice-Consul, or a representative of the Central Government; whether it was stamped in India within three months of receipt as Section 18 of the Stamp Act requires; whether it has been revoked; and whether the principal is alive, since a power of attorney terminates on the principal’s death. A video verification of the principal is prudent.

11. What if only some of the legal heirs are selling?

A. Then only their shares are being sold, and the buyer takes the property subject to the claims of the heirs who did not join. Every heir must either join the sale deed or execute a registered relinquishment or release deed. Where the property is coparcenary property, the position of daughters must be dealt with, following Vineeta Sharma v. Rakesh Sharma.

12. Do I need to check anything if I am buying in a RERA-registered project?

A. Yes. RERA registration is a disclosure and accountability regime, not a title guarantee. Verify the registration number on the State portal, read the disclosures and the promoter’s filings, check the land title on which the project stands, and establish whether the developer has mortgaged the project land and whether the specific unit has been released from that mortgage. Note also that under Section 13 a promoter cannot take more than ten per cent of the cost as advance without a registered agreement for sale.

13. I am buying from a company. Is a board resolution enough?

A. Not necessarily. Where the sale amounts to a disposal of the whole or substantially the whole of the company’s undertaking, Section 180(1)(a) of the Companies Act, 2013 requires a special resolution of the shareholders. The object clause, the authority of the signatory and the MCA charge position must also be verified.

14. The seller company is in financial difficulty. Does that change anything?

A. Considerably. Under Sections 43 and 45 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016, preferential and undervalued transactions entered into during the look-back period before the commencement of insolvency can be avoided by the tribunal. A buyer can pay full value and still lose the asset. This requires a specific assessment before proceeding.

15. What TDS do I have to deduct as a buyer?

A. Where the seller is resident and the consideration or stamp duty value is ₹50 lakh or more, 1% under Section 194-IA. Where the seller is a non-resident, Section 194-IA does not apply — Section 195 does, at capital gains rates plus applicable surcharge and cess, on the sale consideration unless a certificate under Section 197 has been obtained. Deducting 1% from an NRI seller is a common and expensive error, because the shortfall, with interest, is recovered from the buyer.

16. Can an NRI or OCI cardholder buy any property in India?

A. Under the Non-Debt Instruments Rules, 2019, an NRI or OCI cardholder may acquire immovable property in India other than agricultural land, plantation property and a farmhouse. Property may be inherited, including agricultural land, but it cannot be purchased. Other non-residents require the approval of the Reserve Bank.

17. Can the whole process be handled if I am outside India?

A. Yes. This forms a substantial part of our practice. Verification, reporting, negotiation, drafting, stamp duty payment, registration and mutation can all be completed under a properly drafted, authenticated and registered power of attorney, with the report delivered in writing and a video walkthrough of the site where you cannot travel.

18. How long does due diligence take and what does it cost?

A. Seven to fifteen working days for a standard residential or commercial property. Fees are fixed and quoted in writing after a short scoping call, based on the property type, the location, the number of links in the chain and the depth of search required, with out-of-pocket costs such as certified copies and search fees shown separately. We do not take success fees or commissions from any party.

19. What happens if you find a defect?

A. We identify it, state the remedy, state who must effect it, and state the payment milestone before which it must be effected. A great many defects are curable — a missing no objection certificate, an incomplete mutation, an unjoined heir, an unreleased mortgage, an unregistered link. Where a defect is not curable within the transaction timeline, we say so plainly.

20. Should the advance be paid before or after due diligence?

A. After, so far as possible, and in any event only against a written agreement containing conditions precedent and a refund mechanism. Once a substantial advance has been paid, the leverage to insist on rectification is largely gone, and recovery becomes a litigation question rather than a negotiation.

21. Is a public notice in the newspaper necessary?

A. It is not a statutory requirement for a private sale, and it does not confer title. It is a risk-management step which invites claimants to come forward before completion, and it strengthens the buyer’s position on good faith and reasonable care under Section 41 of the Transfer of Property Act. We advise it where the chain has a gap, where title devolved by inheritance, or where the value justifies the delay.

22. Can you verify a property I have already bought?

A. Yes. Post-purchase verification is common where an owner wants to clear the title before resale, obtain finance, complete mutation, respond to a claim, or simply understand the exposure. We identify what can still be rectified, in what order, and what cannot.

23. Does due diligence cover the physical property as well as the papers?

A. Our scope covers the legal position, together with a site inspection to verify possession and to reconcile boundaries and area against the deed and the site plan. Structural condition, valuation and technical survey are separate exercises, and we will tell you when one is needed and coordinate it.

24. What is the difference between property due diligence and business due diligence?

A. Property due diligence establishes title, encumbrance and compliance in respect of a specific immovable asset. Business due diligence examines a company or business as a whole — corporate records, charges, shareholding and FDI compliance, contracts, litigation, insolvency exposure, tax, labour and intellectual property — and is required where real estate forms part of a larger acquisition. We conduct both, and where an acquisition includes property we conduct them together.

25. We are a foreign company taking commercial premises in India. What should we verify?

A. The lessor’s title and authority to lease; whether the premises are mortgaged, and whether the mortgagee’s consent to the lease has been obtained; occupancy certificate and permitted land use for your intended activity; the enforceability of the lock-in, escalation, termination and security deposit terms; whether the lease is registered, since an unregistered lease of more than eleven months is not enforceable as a lease; and the FEMA position appropriate to your structure, which differs between a subsidiary, a branch, a liaison office and a project office.

26. Do you also handle the purchase itself after the report?

A. Yes. Agreement to sell, sale deed drafting, stamp duty computation and e-stamping, appearance at the Sub-Registrar’s office, mutation, and subsequent updates to municipal and utility records are all handled in-house, by the team that conducted the verification.