Before you buy: the paper trail that protects you
By The Ameya Team · · 7 min read
A good address is only as good as its documents. Here is the file every serious buyer should assemble in Bangalore or Chennai — and what each paper is quietly telling you.
A brochure sells a feeling; a document file tells the truth. Most disputes in Indian real estate are not about the building at all — they are about who really owns the land, what was actually approved, and whether the dues are clear. The good news is that the checks are knowable and repeatable. Ask for the papers below, read them with your own advocate, and you will know more about a project than most buyers ever bother to.
1. The title, and its history. Start with the sale deed and the chain of ownership behind it — often called the mother deed. You are tracing an unbroken line of lawful transfers up to the current owner. A clean, continuous title is the foundation; everything else sits on top of it.
2. The Encumbrance Certificate (EC). Issued by the sub-registrar, the EC lists every registered transaction on the property — sales, mortgages, charges — over a period you specify, commonly the last thirteen to thirty years. It is how you confirm the land is not quietly pledged to a bank or tangled in an old loan.
3. The khata (Bangalore) or patta and chitta (Tamil Nadu). In Bangalore, the khata is the municipal record that a property exists as a rateable unit and identifies who pays its tax; an A-khata sits fully within municipal limits and records, while a B-khata signals a property that is not yet fully regularised. In Tamil Nadu, the patta and chitta perform the parallel role of establishing ownership and land classification. Read this before you fall for a view.
4. The sanctioned plan and building approval. Every structure should match a plan sanctioned by the local authority — BBMP or BDA in Bangalore, CMDA or the DTCP in the Chennai region. Compare what is being built to what was approved. Unauthorised floors or deviations from the sanctioned plan are among the most common, and most expensive, red flags.
5. Land use and conversion. Land carries a designated use. Agricultural land must be lawfully converted (the DC-conversion order in Karnataka) before it can host homes or plots, and the zoning must permit what is planned. This matters most for plotted developments, where the land itself is the asset — see our note on land, not leverage.
6. RERA registration. A project must be registered with the state authority before it can be advertised, booked or sold, and the registration number lets you pull the promoter, approvals and timeline from the public portal. We explain what registration does — and what “registration in progress” honestly means — in RERA, in plain English.
7. Commencement and Occupancy Certificates (CC and OC). The Commencement Certificate confirms it was legal to begin building; the Occupancy Certificate confirms the finished structure meets the sanctioned plan and is legal to occupy. Buying a ready unit without an OC is buying a problem you inherit.
8. Property tax receipts and utility dues. Recent tax receipts and cleared water and electricity accounts show there are no arrears riding along with the property. Small on paper, awkward in practice if ignored.
9. A litigation and dues search. Your advocate can check whether the property is subject to pending litigation, court attachment, or unpaid statutory dues. A quiet search now is cheaper than a loud surprise later.
10. Approvals for infrastructure and amenities. For plotted layouts, confirm that roads, drainage, water and electricity provision are approved and in place, not merely promised on a rendering. For built projects, confirm environmental and fire clearances where they apply.
11. The developer themselves. Finally, look past the project to the people behind it. Do they own the land or merely option it? Do they document their approvals openly? Do they sign, build and stay — or sell and disappear? A developer who works in the open makes every check above easy to complete. That is the whole idea behind our approvals and transparency page, and the reason our current project publishes its record as it goes: FOUR·94, Bangalore.
None of this requires special expertise — only the discipline to ask, and a developer willing to answer. If you would like the sequence laid out step by step, our how to buy guide walks through it in order, and the stamp-duty & registration tool will size the closing costs.
General information, not legal advice. Document names, periods and procedures vary by state and change over time; always verify the current position and engage your own advocate before acting.
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