Property Law · Due Diligence
Pre-Purchase Title Verification: The Seven Checks That Matter
Almost every property dispute we are asked to litigate was avoidable at the stage of purchase. The defect was usually visible in the documents, and nobody looked. These are the seven checks that decide whether you are buying an asset or a lawsuit.
Check One
The chain of title, traced for thirty years
Title is not a single document. It is an unbroken sequence of transfers running back far enough that the law will presume the earliest link genuine. Thirty years is the working standard, because a document that old, produced from proper custody, carries a statutory presumption of genuineness under what is now Section 80 of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam.
Read every deed in the chain, not just the seller's own. What matters is whether each transferor had the right to transfer what they purported to transfer. A break anywhere — an unregistered link, a transfer by someone who held only a life interest, an inheritance never formally established — travels down the chain and lands on you.
For DDA and other allotted properties the chain begins with the allotment letter and runs through the conveyance deed and every subsequent mutation. See our DDA property page for how allotment-based title differs from ordinary freehold.
Check Two
Whether you are being sold a GPA, not a title
This single issue accounts for a large share of Delhi property litigation. A General Power of Attorney, an agreement to sell and a will — the familiar bundle — do not transfer ownership. The Supreme Court settled the point in Suraj Lamp & Industries v. State of Haryana: immovable property is transferred only by a registered deed of conveyance.
A GPA buyer holds possession and paperwork. They do not hold title, cannot reliably pass title on, and may find the attorney's authority revoked or extinguished on the principal's death. If the seller cannot produce a registered sale deed in their own name, understand precisely what is being sold before any money moves.
Check Three
Encumbrances, mortgages and charges
Obtain the encumbrance certificate from the Sub-Registrar's office covering the relevant period. It shows registered transactions against the property — mortgages, attachments, prior sales.
Its limits matter as much as its contents. An equitable mortgage created by deposit of title deeds may not appear. Unpaid property tax, electricity and water dues, society dues and unregistered family arrangements will not appear. Ask separately for the original title deeds: a seller who cannot produce them because they are "with a relative" is a seller whose deeds may be lying with a lender.
Check Four
Pending litigation and lis pendens
Search the Delhi District Courts and Delhi High Court portals against the seller and the previous owners in the chain. A suit pending in respect of the property engages Section 52 of the Transfer of Property Act: buy during the suit and you take subject to whatever the court eventually decides, however much you paid and however innocent your purchase.
Name-based searches are imperfect — spellings vary, and matters are filed in different complexes depending on jurisdiction. Combine the search with a written declaration from the seller and a published public notice. If a partition, injunction or possession suit surfaces, stop and take advice before paying anything further.
Check Five
Land use, category and conversion status
Delhi land is not uniform. Freehold, leasehold, agricultural, urbanised village (lal dora), unauthorised regularised colony — each carries its own restrictions on transfer, construction and permitted use, and each has its own conversion route.
Check the sanctioned land use in the Master Plan against the use you intend. Leasehold property may need the lessor's permission to transfer, and conversion to freehold may be pending or incomplete. Agricultural land carries restrictions that do not disappear because a colony has grown around it.
Check Six
Approvals, sanctioned plan and the structure as built
Compare the sanctioned building plan with what is physically standing. An extra floor, a covered setback, a terrace enclosed years ago — unauthorised construction attracts sealing and demolition action against whoever owns the property when the authority acts, not whoever built it.
For a property bought from a developer, check the completion or occupancy certificate, the approved layout, and whether common areas have been handed to the association. Where a builder has not delivered what was promised, the remedies are different again — our builder dispute page sets those out.
Check Seven
Possession, tenancy and who is actually on the land
Visit the property. Ask who is in occupation and on what basis. A tenant in long possession, a caretaker claiming rights, a family member refusing to vacate, or a neighbour's encroachment across the boundary are all far cheaper to discover before purchase than after.
Confirm the physical boundaries against the site plan and the measurements in the deed. Where possession is with someone other than the seller, treat the transaction as a litigation risk and price it as one, or require vacant possession as a condition of the sale deed rather than a promise for later.
Before You Pay
Put the protection into the documents
Due diligence tells you what you are buying. The agreement to sell is where you protect yourself: representations and warranties on title, an indemnity, payment staged against milestones, a clear completion date, and a specific-performance clause so the remedy is enforcement rather than a refund.
Advance paid on a WhatsApp understanding is the most common way buyers lose money in Delhi property transactions. If a dispute has already arisen, the routes are set out on our specific performance and property recovery pages.
Questions
Frequently asked
- Thirty years is the working standard, because Section 90 of the Indian Evidence Act — now Section 80 of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam — raises a presumption of genuineness for documents thirty years old produced from proper custody. For freehold property a thirty-year chain of registered deeds is the usual requirement. For DDA and other allotted properties, the chain runs from the original allotment letter through every conveyance and mutation.
- A GPA does not transfer title. The Supreme Court held in Suraj Lamp & Industries v. State of Haryana that sale by GPA, agreement to sell and will does not convey ownership, and that immovable property can be transferred only by a registered deed of conveyance. A large volume of Delhi property still changes hands on GPA papers. Buying on that basis means buying possession and a set of documents, not title, and the risk sits entirely with the buyer.
- It is a record of registered transactions affecting the property over a given period, obtained from the office of the Sub-Registrar in whose jurisdiction the property falls. It reveals registered mortgages, sale deeds and attachments. It does not reveal unregistered charges, oral arrangements, tax dues or pending litigation, so it is a starting point rather than a clearance.
- Search the District Courts and Delhi High Court case portals against the names of the seller and the previous owners, and check for any lis pendens registration. A suit pending in respect of the property attracts Section 52 of the Transfer of Property Act, which means a purchase made during the suit is subject to whatever the court finally decides. Name searches are imperfect, so they are combined with a public notice and seller declarations.
- Whether the property can lawfully be used and built on as intended. Delhi land carries categories — freehold, leasehold, agricultural, urbanised village, unauthorised regularised colony — and each has its own restrictions on transfer, construction and conversion. A structure that does not match the sanctioned plan or the permitted land use can attract sealing or demolition regardless of who now owns it.
- It is common practice and worth the small cost. A notice published in newspapers inviting objections to the proposed sale within a stated period creates a record that the buyer acted in good faith and made reasonable enquiry. It does not cure a defect in title, but it strengthens the buyer's position as a bona fide purchaser for value without notice.
- For a straightforward freehold property with a clean registered chain, one to two weeks. Where the property is leasehold, held through an allotment, part of an unauthorised regularised colony, or where the chain includes a GPA transaction or an inheritance without probate, it takes longer because more records have to be reconstructed. It is still faster and cheaper than litigating the same question after paying.