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Legal Services

Property Document Verification

A due diligence check on a property before purchase: who actually owns it, what is charged against it, whether the construction was approved, and whether anything in the chain of title breaks. This is the one legal service where the value is entirely in doing it before the advance is paid, because almost nothing found afterwards is fixable.

What you get

  • Chain of title traced back over the period a lender or a careful buyer would require
  • Encumbrance certificate obtained and read for existing mortgages and charges
  • Building approval, layout sanction and occupancy certificate checked against what was built
  • Property tax, electricity and maintenance dues checked for arrears that travel with the property
  • Seller identity and authority to sell verified, including any power of attorney relied on
  • Written opinion listing what is clear, what is defective and what should be resolved before payment

How it works

  1. 1Collect the documentsSale deeds, the parent document, the approved plan, tax receipts and any agreement already signed with the seller.
  2. 2Search the recordsThe encumbrance certificate is obtained and title is traced through the registry, so a charge or a break in the chain is found in the record rather than taken on the seller word.
  3. 3Verify approvals and duesWhat was sanctioned is compared with what stands on the site, and outstanding statutory dues that would follow the property to you are identified.
  4. 4Written opinionYou receive a plain opinion on whether the title is clear, with each defect listed and, where possible, what would have to happen to cure it.

FAQ

About property document verification

The bank is giving a loan on this property. Is that not verification enough?

No. A lender check is scoped to the lender own security, and a lender is content with a risk it can price or insure that would be unacceptable to you as the owner. It also does not cover things a buyer cares about, such as deviations from the sanctioned plan that leave a portion unregularised. The two checks overlap; they are not the same check.

What happens if a defect is found after registration?

Your remedy shifts from walking away to litigating, which is slower, costlier and uncertain. Some defects, an unapproved construction or a missing link in the chain, can take years to cure and will block a future resale in the meantime. This is why the sequence matters more than the cost of the check.