Registration of the sale deed makes you the owner. It does not, by itself, change the municipal record. Those are two separate systems, maintained by two separate authorities, and the second does not update because the first did. The application itself now runs through the digitised record, and the steps are set out in our note on e-khata in Bengaluru.
Why it matters even though it is not title
Because everything downstream asks for it. A building plan sanction, a trade licence, a water or electricity connection in your name, a home loan against the property, and the next sale all run through the khata. If the property sits in the B register, the transfer will also surface that, and what to do about it is covered in our guide to B khata to A khata conversion. Leaving it in the seller's name is not a legal risk to your ownership so much as a practical block on using what you own.
What to file
- The registered sale deed, original for verification and a copy to file
- The previous owner's khata certificate and khata extract
- The latest property tax paid receipt, with no arrears outstanding
- An Encumbrance Certificate covering the period up to the sale
- The title flow, where the property has changed hands more than once
- Identity and address proof, and a passport photograph
- The occupancy certificate and approved plan, for an apartment
- The allotment or possession letter from the builder, where relevant
- A no-objection from the association or builder, where the format requires it
An application filed while tax is outstanding will not move, and the arrears attach to the property rather than to the person who ran them up. Check the tax position on the portal before you complete the purchase, not when you come to file the transfer.
The sequence
- Confirm the tax account is clear and that the property identifier matches the deed.
- File the transfer application with the documents above, and keep the acknowledgement.
- Pay the transfer fee, which is calculated on the consideration recorded in the deed.
- Site inspection and scrutiny, where the authority verifies extent and dimensions against the record.
- The record is updated and the certificate and extract issue in your name.
- Verify the digitised record afterwards, because errors in extent and spelling surface at exactly this stage.
If the builder has not handed over the khata
An apartment purchaser often cannot file at all, because the khata for the project has never been created or bifurcated into individual units. That is a separate problem with a separate remedy against the promoter, dealt with in the builder delay answer and on the property practice page.