Legal
Title Due Diligence: The 12 Documents to Read
Why this list matters
Registration proves a transaction happened. It does not prove the seller had a clean right to sell. Only the document chain does.
The twelve
- Mother deed — origin of title.
- Chain of sale deeds, 30 years — every transfer, with no gaps in names or extents.
- Encumbrance certificate, 15 years — mortgages, attachments, court orders.
- Khata extract and certificate — municipal record and classification.
- Property tax paid receipts, 3 years — arrears follow the property.
- DC conversion order — for land that was agricultural.
- Approved layout plan and release order — for plotted developments.
- Sanctioned building plan and commencement certificate — for construction.
- Occupancy certificate — for completed buildings.
- RERA registration and quarterly updates — for under-construction projects.
- Loan closure and NOC — where the property was previously mortgaged.
- Survey sketch, and a fresh survey report — boundaries on the ground versus on paper.
Defects this list catches
Missing links in the chain, undisclosed mortgages, tenancy claims, unapproved additions, extent mismatch between deed and survey, and construction beyond the sanctioned plan.
Do not skip these two steps
A licensed surveyor's physical demarcation, and a lawyer's written title opinion addressed to you. Between them they cost a fraction of one percent of the purchase and prevent the failures that cost everything.
How we work
UrbanEarth assembles this pack for every property we list and hands it to your lawyer for independent review — we expect you to verify, not to trust.