Nearly every property dispute I see could have been avoided at the due diligence stage, usually for a fraction of what the litigation later costs. Here is the checklist, in the order it should be done.
1. Title flow
Trace the ownership back, ideally thirty years, through the mother deed and every subsequent conveyance. You are looking for gaps, unexplained transfers, partitions without all parties, and inherited property where every legal heir has not signed. A single missing heir can unsettle the whole chain.
2. Encumbrance Certificate
The EC from the sub-registrar, for at least the last thirty years, shows registered transactions and charges. It reveals mortgages and prior sales. It does not reveal unregistered agreements or oral arrangements, which is why it is a starting point, not a clearance.
Do not wait for the seller to hand you one. In Karnataka you can pull it yourself through Kaveri Online Services, and our guide on how to view an encumbrance certificate online walks through the screens, the fee basis and the property details you have to enter. Order it on the exact schedule in the deed rather than an approximate survey number.
3. Khata and tax
Check the khata and its type, and property tax paid receipts up to date. A khata means the property is on the municipal record for a lawful, approved property; B khata indicates a property recorded outside the regular register, which affects loans, plan approvals and resale.
Within BBMP limits this is no longer a paper question. e-khata is mandatory for registration, and sub-registrars have been directed not to register a transaction without it, so confirm the seller already holds a valid e-khata before you part with an advance rather than discovering the gap on the day of registration. Both A khata and B khata properties are eligible for e-khata, so the seller producing one tells you nothing about which register the property actually sits in.
4. Approvals
- Approved building plan and sanction from the competent authority
- Commencement certificate, and for a completed building, the occupancy certificate
- Conversion order, where the land was originally agricultural. This is the one people skip
- Where applicable, the layout approval and release of sites
Where the land was agricultural in origin, the conversion order under Section 95 of the Karnataka Land Revenue Act, 1964 is the document that decides everything downstream, and it should be read with the RTC and the mutation extracts, which you can pull yourself from the Bhoomi portal of the Revenue Department. A layout formed on unconverted land does not become lawful because sites in it have been bought and sold for twenty years.
5. RERA
For an under-construction project, check the RERA registration and read what the promoter has declared: completion timeline, approvals uploaded, litigation disclosed, quarterly progress. It is public and frequently more candid than the brochure.
In Karnataka the register sits with K-RERA, where you can search the project by name or registration number, check whether the agent selling to you is registered, and read the promoter's own quarterly updates. Then do the search most buyers never do: look through the Authority's published orders for the promoter's name and for the project. Findings already recorded against that promoter are worth knowing before you pay rather than after.
First, verify before you part with any advance, because a token advance is where negotiating power ends. Second, insist on a public notice inviting claims before completion in any transaction where the title chain has a soft spot. It is cheap, and it flushes out claimants while you can still walk away.
6. Physical and possession checks
Match the survey number and boundaries on the ground against the documents, confirm who is in physical possession, check for tenancy, and look for pending litigation affecting the property or the project.
- Mother deed and the full chain of title, ideally thirty years
- Encumbrance Certificate for the same period, read line by line
- Khata certificate and extract, and the e-khata where applicable
- Latest property tax paid receipt
- Sanctioned building plan and commencement certificate
- Occupancy Certificate, which is not the same as possession
- K-RERA registration number, verified on the Authority's own site
- Approved layout and conversion order where the land was agricultural
- NOCs: fire, lift, water, electricity, and the society or association
- Latest bank release or no-dues letter if the property was mortgaged
7. The file you should end up holding
Every item below should be in your file before the balance consideration moves, and the deeds should be certified copies obtained from the sub-registrar rather than photocopies handed over by the seller.
- Mother deed and every intermediate conveyance in the chain
- Encumbrance certificate for the full period, and a fresh one taken in the days immediately before registration
- Khata certificate, khata extract, e-khata and property tax paid receipts
- Sanctioned plan, commencement certificate, and occupancy certificate for a completed building
- Conversion order, RTC and mutation extracts wherever the land has a revenue history
- Current survey sketch, checked against an actual measurement of the site
- Death certificate, legal heir certificate and a dated family tree wherever the title has passed by inheritance
- Release deed and the lender's no dues letter for any mortgage that appears on the encumbrance certificate
- Association or society no dues certificate, share certificate and maintenance account, for an apartment
- Identity documents and PAN of every seller, and of every person whose signature the deed will need
What it costs and how long it takes
Title examination on an ordinary Bengaluru flat is usually a matter of a week or two once the papers are in hand, and the professional fee for it is small next to the price of the property. The real money moves at registration. Stamp duty and the registration fee are charged on the consideration or on the guidance value, whichever is higher, at the slab the state has fixed, and both the slabs and the guidance values are revised from time to time. Have the figure worked out for your specific property rather than budgeting from a percentage somebody quoted you. Where the consideration crosses the threshold set under the Income-tax Act, 2025, which replaced the repealed Income-tax Act, 1961 with effect from 1 April 2026, deducting tax at source and depositing it is the buyer's obligation, not the seller's.
Getting the sequence right
Diligence first, then an agreement to sell that records the price, the payment schedule, the date for execution of the sale deed and the consequences of default on either side, and only then the sale deed itself. The difference between a sale agreement and a sale deed is worth understanding before you sign the first of them, because the agreement is where all your leverage lives and the deed is the only document that actually transfers ownership. Tie each instalment to the seller producing whatever is still missing, and pay by banking channel throughout.