Checking Property Title Before You Buy: A Practical Guide for Punjab

A large proportion of property litigation is traceable to a single moment: money was paid before the title was checked. Once payment has been made and possession is disputed, the buyer’s position shifts from negotiating to litigating, and litigation over land is among the slowest and most expensive kinds there is.

The cost of proper verification before purchase is a small fraction of the cost of the suit that follows a bad one. It is also far more likely to produce the outcome you actually wanted, which was to own the property rather than to win a case about it.

For land held under the revenue system, the record maintained by the revenue authorities is the starting point. What you are trying to establish is not simply whose name appears today, but how it came to appear there.

• The current entry — whose name the land stands in, and for what share
• The mutation history — the chain of transfers by which the present entry came about
• Whether any mutation in that chain is disputed, pending or was entered in unusual circumstances
• The area and boundaries recorded, and whether they match what is being shown to you on the ground
• Whether the land is jointly held, since a co-owner cannot ordinarily convey more than their own share

Confirm that the person selling is the person entitled to sell. Match identity documents against the name in the record. If the seller is acting for someone else, examine the power of attorney carefully — whether it is validly executed, whether it actually authorises sale, and whether it remains in force.

Where the property is inherited, establish how it devolved and whether all heirs are accounted for. An omitted heir is one of the most common sources of later dispute, because their share was never theirs to sell.

Establish whether the property is subject to a mortgage or charge, whether it is the subject of pending proceedings, and whether any court has restrained its transfer. Buying land that is already before a court means inheriting that litigation along with the property.

It is also worth confirming that taxes and dues relating to the property are settled, since outstanding liabilities can follow the land rather than the previous owner.

Documents describe land; they do not show you what is standing on it. Visit the site. Establish who is actually in possession, whether anyone is occupying it as a tenant or otherwise, and whether the physical boundaries correspond to what the record says.

Title and possession are separate questions in law, and they do not always sit with the same person. Discovering a discrepancy before purchase is a negotiating point; discovering it afterwards is a lawsuit.

An agreement to sell records a contract to transfer property in the future. It does not itself transfer title. Buyers sometimes make substantial payments on the strength of one and assume they have become the owner; they have not.

If you enter into an agreement to sell, it should at minimum record clearly:

• The parties, and the property described precisely enough to be identified without ambiguity
• The total consideration, and a schedule of what is payable when
• The date by which the transfer is to be completed
• Who is responsible for which taxes, duties and charges
• What happens if either party fails to perform
• When possession is to be handed over

Where a seller refuses to complete, the buyer’s remedy is generally a suit for specific performance — which is subject to its own conditions and time limits, and is considerably harder to pursue where the agreement was vague about these points.