Article on "How to Check the sale deed" by Rahul Ingole

How to check the sale deed

- By Rahul Ingole

In India owning a house is everyone's dream. The process of buying properties has certain technical and legal aspects. One of the important aspects is to verify property papers, particularly in resale transactions. we are talking specifically about sale deeds of the era when E-Sale deeds were not introduced and stamp paper was used for paying stamp duty. Here, are the checks one has to make for verification of such sale deeds.

First and foremost, don’t rely on photocopies of property papers and demand original property papers from sellers to check their authenticity. This disclosed the condition of property papers whether they are torn, ripped off, mutilated, or moisturized. 

The second step is to make an application to the sub-registrar office for a certified copy of the sale deed. This step should be done earlier because government machinery is slow in India and it may take time to obtain a certified copy.

The next thing is to ensure stamp duty is duly paid by manually counting stamp paper and the total of it should be matched with the total duty paid which is mentioned on the back of the first paper or second paper. One more thing is that the paper should be sequentially arranged and not a single piece of paper lost or removed.

Then check the name of the buyer and seller which should match with KYC docs. If there are any minor changes between the name mentioned in the KYC documents and the sale deed, the same can be avoided. After the name address should match their respective address.

The sale deed usually contains the description of how the seller derived the title viz parental property or through gift or purchase. In connection it is necessary to ensure that the registration number of the previous document, date, and erstwhile owner name stated in sale deeds should be exactly correct.

The next check is to be made of a description of the property which includes plot/unit no colony name, and landmark. It must be to the point that a person of common acumen easily locates the same it can be said that there is no room for ambiguity as far as the address is concerned,

To remove any iota of doubt it is essential to read the complete sale deed and each clause should be understood in its right context. while reading it should be observed that there should be no overwriting/manual corrections in the sale deed. If there is any overwriting or manual correction it should be certified by the signature of the seller and buyer. In addition to this same is certified by the registrar by noting line no., paragraph no., and page no. where manual changes are made. The benefit of going through the entire sale deed is that any objectionable clause is easily pointed out. some sale deeds contain a permission clause which makes it mandatory for the owner to obtain a no objection certificate (NOC) from the society/builder before transferring property. In the absence of such NOC buyer’s ownership is pending approval.

One more aspect is that even people who work in the property market are not aware that there may be bail bond lien on property which is reflected in property papers. The presence of such a lien means the property is given as collateral security to ensure the appearance of the accused in court. The same should be removed through court otherwise it has serious repercussions. At last, the signature of the buyer, seller, witness of each side, sub-registrar, and sale deed no at the back of the stamp paper should be there. So far certified copy may be in hand, now tallied the same as the original, it should be the same in every aspect. The above checks is concerned with the verification of the sale deed there are many other exercises which one has to do to ensure an undoubtful transaction.