Complete Sale Deed drafting and registration, done correctly the first time

The procedure, step by step

1. 01

   Title and encumbrance check

   We trace the ownership backwards through the previous deeds — usually thirty years, sometimes further where the chain passes through inheritance or a partition. Alongside that we take an encumbrance search to see what is registered against the property: mortgages, liens, attachment orders, anything a buyer would step into. Where the property sits in a co-operative housing society, the society's records and share certificate are checked too, because the society's books and the revenue records do not always agree.

2. 02

   Valuation against the Jantri

   The property is valued against the current Jantri rate for its location, use and construction type. This decides the stamp duty, and it is where guesswork becomes expensive: an under-valued deed can be referred for adjudication, which pauses everything and can attract a penalty. We calculate it before drafting, so the number in the deed and the number the sub-registrar arrives at are the same number.

3. 03

   Drafting

   The deed is drafted around your specific transaction rather than filled in from a form. Boundaries, survey or final plot numbers, the built-up area, the mode and schedule of payment, what happens to outstanding dues, the date possession changes hands, and the seller's covenants on title all get set out. If any part of the consideration is being paid through a bank, the deed has to sit correctly alongside the lender's own requirements.

4. 04

   Stamping and Garvi entry

   Stamp duty is paid — e-stamping or franking, depending on the amount and what is available — and the transaction is entered on Garvi with the parties' details, the property schedule and the valuation. An appointment token is booked for the sub-registrar office with jurisdiction over the property.

5. 05

   Execution before the sub-registrar

   Both parties attend with two witnesses and photo ID. Photographs and thumb impressions are taken, the deed is admitted for registration, and the registration fee is paid. Where a party cannot attend, a properly executed power of attorney can stand in — but it has to be drawn for the purpose and, if it comes from abroad, attested correctly before it will be accepted.

6. 06

   Index-II and mutation

   The registered deed and the Index-II copy come back to you; we hold nothing back. The transaction is then carried into the revenue or city survey records so the property stands in your name for tax and utility purposes. This step — the mutation, ferfar in Gujarati — is the one buyers most often assume is automatic. It is not, and a property that is registered but not mutated causes trouble at the next sale rather than at this one.