No single document proves ownership of Indian property. Title is established by a registered sale deed read together with the parent deeds, the revenue record of rights, an encumbrance search, municipal records and the building approvals. Each paper answers one narrow question, and the commonest buyer error is treating one of them as proof of everything.
Key facts
- Registration of a sale deed of immovable property is compulsory under the Registration Act 1908.
- An unregistered sale deed does not convey title, whatever the parties signed or paid.
- An agreement to sell is a promise to transfer. It is not a transfer.
- The record of rights is a revenue document: it records possession and revenue liability, not title.
- Mutation updates municipal and revenue records after a sale. It follows title; it does not create it.
- The occupancy certificate, not the completion certificate, governs lawful possession, utilities and resale.
- Agricultural land needs a conversion or non-agricultural order before any residential construction.
- A RERA-registered project has a public page carrying its approvals, promoter and progress.
What documents actually do
Indian property paperwork is layered because the law is. Ownership passes by one instrument, the conveyance. Possession and tax liability are tracked separately by the revenue department and the municipal body. Permission to build comes from a planning authority, and permission to sell a new project from the state RERA. These systems do not talk to each other, so a defect in one can sit undetected for years while the rest look clean. Read a folder, then, as answers to separate questions: who owns this, is anything charged against it, was it lawfully built, and was the land lawfully usable for what stands on it.
Three failures recur. A tax receipt is taken as proof of ownership, when it only proves somebody paid a tax. An allotment letter is taken as a transfer, when it is an offer taken up. And a completion certificate is read as clearance to move in, when that is governed by the occupancy certificate.
Master table: every document and what it proves
Work down this table with the seller's folder in front of you, and read the last column twice.
| Document | Who issues it | What it proves | When you need it | What it does not prove |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sale deed (registered) | Parties, at the sub-registrar's office | Title passed from the named seller to the named buyer, for a stated consideration | At completion of every purchase | That the seller had good title. A deed from someone with no title transfers nothing |
| Parent or mother deed and earlier chain | Historic; certified copies from the registry | How the seller came to own it, through each earlier transfer, partition, gift or succession | Before any advance; on every resale | Anything about the structure or current encumbrances |
| Record of rights (7/12, RTC, pahani, jamabandi, patta, khatauni) | State revenue department | Survey number, extent, classification, person in possession; often loans and tenancy | All land and plot purchases | Title. Revenue entries neither create nor extinguish ownership |
| Encumbrance certificate | Sub-registrar's office, for a stated period | Registered transactions, mortgages and charges on record in that registry | Before every purchase | Unregistered claims, oral tenancies, pending litigation |
| Khata or municipal assessment extract | Municipal corporation or local body | The property is on the assessment register in a named person's name | For mutation, utilities and loans | Title, legality of construction, or that an occupancy certificate exists |
| Property tax receipt | Municipal corporation or local body | Tax for a stated period on a stated assessment has been paid | To confirm no arrears before takeover | Ownership. A tenant, relative or builder may be paying |
| Approved layout and sanctioned plan | Planning or town planning authority | What was permitted: footprint, height, floors, setbacks, use | Before booking; on resale of built property | What was actually built. Plans are compared against the structure |
| Commencement certificate | Planning or municipal authority | Construction was lawfully allowed to start on the sanctioned plan | Before paying on an under-construction project | That the project will be completed as sanctioned |
| Completion certificate | Planning or municipal authority | The building was completed in accordance with the sanctioned plan and building rules | At handover of a new project | That the building may lawfully be occupied |
| Occupancy certificate | Planning or municipal authority | The completed building is fit for occupation, with services and clearances in place | Before possession, the final instalment, or any resale purchase | Title, or that the flat matches the agreement |
| Land conversion or non-agricultural order | District Collector or state revenue authority | Permitted use was changed from agricultural to residential, commercial or industrial | Any plot or house on once-agricultural land | Building approval. Conversion changes use, not sanction |
| RERA registration and project page | State real estate regulatory authority | The project or phase is registered, with promoter, approvals, declared completion date and progress | Before booking in a registered project | Quality, delivery, or that the uploaded approvals are valid |
| Agreement for sale or agreement to sell | Parties; registered where required | Agreed terms: price, schedule, specification, carpet area, completion date, remedies | At booking; the basis of later claims against a promoter | Ownership. It is a contract to transfer, not a transfer |
| Allotment and possession letters | Promoter or development authority | The unit allotted, on what terms, and the date possession was offered or taken | In a new-project purchase; evidence in a delay claim | Any interest in the property, or that possession was lawful |
| Society share certificate and no-objection certificate | Society or owners' association | Membership, shares held against the flat, and whether society dues are clear | On resale of a society flat | Title, or whether the society holds the conveyance of the land |
| Mutation entry or khata transfer | Revenue department or municipal body | Records have been updated to your name after the sale | Immediately after registration | Title. Mutation follows a transfer; it does not effect one |
Agreement to sell versus sale deed
An agreement to sell records that the parties have agreed to a transfer on stated terms by a stated date. A sale deed carries that transfer out. Until the deed is executed and registered, the buyer holds a contractual right against the seller, not an ownership right in the property, and on refusal the remedy is a suit for specific performance or damages. The consequence is about money: an advance paid against an agreement is at risk in a way the price paid at registration is not, so the agreement must carry the terms that protect it. Identify the property by survey or unit number, state the consideration and payment stages, fix the date for executing the deed, allocate duty and registration cost, say what happens to the advance on default, and make completion conditional on title and approvals coming out clean.
In a new project the equivalent is the agreement for sale, and RERA shifts the position in the buyer's favour: where a project is registered, the promoter cannot take more than a small fraction of the cost as advance without first entering into a written agreement for sale and registering it. Read the carpet area, the specification annexure, the declared completion date, the interest payable on delay, and the clause on changes to the sanctioned plan.
| Point | Agreement to sell / for sale | Sale deed |
|---|---|---|
| Legal effect | Contractual obligation to transfer in future | Transfers ownership on execution and registration |
| When executed | At the start, once terms are agreed | At completion, when the balance is paid |
| Registration | Required in several states and for registered projects; practice varies | Compulsory under the Registration Act 1908 |
| What the buyer holds | A right to enforce the contract | Title to the property |
| On the other side's default | Specific performance, refund or damages | Already an owner |
| Stamp treatment | Stamped as an agreement; many states allow adjustment against the later deed | Stamped as a conveyance on the value assessed for duty |
Our stamp duty guide explains the adjustment between duty on the agreement and duty on the deed, and what buying a home really costs places both in the total outlay.
Sale deed versus conveyance deed
A conveyance deed is the general category: any registered instrument transferring an interest in immovable property. A sale deed is the species used when the transfer is for money. Gift, relinquishment, partition and exchange deeds are conveyances too, and all transfer title, but none is a sale. So if you are asked whether you need a sale deed or a conveyance deed, the answer is both at once.
The distinction does real work in a housing society. When a builder develops a plot and sells flats, the purchasers get sale deeds or registered agreements for their units, but the land and structure as a whole stay in the promoter's name until a separate conveyance is executed in favour of the society. Until that is done the society does not hold the land it stands on, which surfaces years later when it wants to redevelop, borrow against the land or regularise an extension.
Promoters often fail to execute it. In Maharashtra the state's ownership flats legislation supplies a remedy: a society can apply to the designated competent authority for a deemed conveyance, ordered and executed without the promoter's cooperation once eligibility and default are proved. The mechanism is state-specific; several states have no equivalent unilateral route, leaving the society to pursue the promoter through the regulator or the courts. So on a resale flat, ask whether the conveyance has been executed and, if not, whether an application is pending.
The record of rights and its many state names
The record of rights is the revenue department's register of who holds and cultivates a parcel, how it is classified, and what charges attach to it. It is the most useful document in any land transaction and the most misunderstood, because it is a revenue record and not a title record. Entries are strong evidence of possession, but an entry in your favour does not make you the owner. The name changes at every state border, which is why buyers think they are looking at different documents when they are looking at the same instrument.
| State or region | What it is called | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Maharashtra | 7/12 extract, satbara utara; 8-A | Survey or gat number, area, holder, tenancy, crop and encumbrance notes |
| Gujarat | 7/12 and 8-A | Same structure as Maharashtra |
| Karnataka | RTC or pahani (record of rights, tenancy and crops) | Khata is a separate municipal record for urban property |
| Telangana | Pahani and the ROR extract | Agricultural records sit on a portal of their own |
| Andhra Pradesh | Adangal and the 1-B register | Adangal records cultivation; the 1-B shows the holding |
| Tamil Nadu | Patta, with chitta and adangal | Patta names the holder of a survey number; the A-register gives classification |
| Punjab and Haryana | Jamabandi, with fard or nakal as the extract | Fard badar is the correction entry |
| Uttar Pradesh | Khatauni, with the khasra | Khatauni lists the holding; khasra identifies the plot |
| Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh | Jamabandi, khasra and khatauni | Terminology mixes between districts |
| Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha | Record of rights; jamabandi panji in Bihar | Mutation is called dakhil kharij |
| West Bengal | Porcha | Plot and khatian numbers identify the parcel |
| Kerala | Thandaper account and land tax receipt | The village office records the thandaper number |
Read the extract for four things: the identification of the parcel, because the survey number and extent must match the deed and the physical plot; the holder's name, which must reconcile with the deed chain; the classification, which tells you whether conversion was needed; and the notes column, where loans, tenancies, acquisition proceedings and transfer restrictions are often the only place they appear. Alongside it, run an encumbrance certificate for the longest period the state will issue and read it against the deed chain: a transfer the deeds do not show, or a mortgage with no release recorded, stops the transaction until explained. Our guide to land records online lists the state portals, patta, khata and encumbrance certificates covers those documents in full, and the registration checklist has the other searches to run before completion.
Completion certificate versus occupancy certificate
Both come from the authority that sanctioned the building and are often treated as interchangeable. The difference decides whether you can lawfully live in the flat. The completion certificate records that the building was completed in accordance with the sanctioned plan and the building rules. The occupancy certificate records that the completed building is fit to be occupied, meaning the authority is satisfied that services and statutory clearances are in place: water, sewerage and drainage, the electrical installation, lifts and fire safety.
| Point | Completion certificate | Occupancy certificate |
|---|---|---|
| What it certifies | The building as built matches the sanctioned plan and building rules | The completed building is fit for occupation, with services and clearances in place |
| Stage | On completion of construction | After completion, once services and clearances are certified |
| Why it matters | Evidence the structure was not built outside the sanction | Governs lawful occupation, permanent utilities and resale |
| Phased projects | Issued for the building or phase completed | A part occupancy certificate may be issued tower by tower |
| If missing | Suggests an unresolved deviation from sanction | Possession is irregular; utilities may be temporary; lenders and future buyers will balk |
Treat an offer of possession without an occupancy certificate as the problem it is. It is common, and promoters describe it as a formality. Sometimes it is. But a building without one can face regularisation proceedings, penal assessment, difficulty getting permanent water and power connections, and a resale market that discounts it. Get the reason and the expected date in writing, and hold back whatever the agreement allows.
Agricultural land, non-agricultural use and conversion
Land carries a recorded classification, and agricultural land cannot be used for residential, commercial or industrial purposes until that classification is changed. The change is granted by the District Collector or the designated revenue authority under the state's land revenue law, and goes by different names: NA permission in Maharashtra and Gujarat, DC conversion in Karnataka, change of land use elsewhere. See the order itself, with the survey number and extent matching the parcel. Several states also restrict who may buy agricultural land, and some impose holding ceilings. Those rules change by amendment, so confirm the current position.
Construction that went up without conversion is the harder case, and not rare on the edges of fast growing cities. The land was never permitted for that use, whatever else was approved. Consequences depend on the state and on whether a regularisation scheme exists, but the pattern is familiar: no occupancy certificate, trouble with permanent utility connections, irregular assessment, lenders declining to fund, and regularisation charges landing on whoever owns it then.
Checking a project on the state RERA portal
Every state and union territory maintains a real estate regulatory authority with a public portal, and any project requiring registration has a page on it. It is the one source of project information the promoter does not control, so look there first.
Start from the registration number printed on the advertisement and search for it directly, not by project name: similar names are common and phases register separately. Confirm the registration covers the phase and tower being sold and has not lapsed. Check the promoter entity against the name on the agreement; a separate special purpose vehicle is normal, but it should be the registered one. Open the uploaded approvals for the sanctioned plan, the commencement certificate and the land documents. Note the declared completion date, against which any delay claim is measured. Then read the quarterly progress updates, the most useful and least read part of the portal. Finally check complaints against the promoter.
Two limits: registration is not an endorsement of quality, and the uploaded approvals are copies of what the promoter filed, not an independent verification. Our RERA check tool links to the state portals, and the home buying guide sets this within the booking process.
Tax receipts, khata and mutation
Municipal records answer a narrow question well: does the local body recognise this property, in whose name, on what assessment, and are the dues paid? The assessment extract, called the khata extract, khatauni or assessment register extract depending on the state, is what you need for mutation, utilities and usually a loan. The receipt shows payment for a period. Neither proves ownership.
They tell you other useful things. The assessed area should be consistent with the area you are buying; a large discrepancy often traces to an unapproved extension. The category should match the actual use. And the receipts should be continuous, since gaps mean arrears, and arrears are commonly treated as attaching to the property rather than only to the person who incurred them. Ask for a no-dues position before registration. The same logic covers society maintenance, electricity and water.
After the purchase, apply for mutation promptly. It updates the municipal and revenue records to your name. It does not transfer title, which your registered deed has already done, but until it is complete the records still point at the seller, causing trouble with tax demands, utility transfers, loans and your own resale. Our stamp duty, registration and property tax guide covers mutation and the assessment systems.
Stage-by-stage due diligence checklist
The order matters. Each stage is cheap relative to the next, and each can stop the process before you have spent anything you cannot recover.
| Stage | What to obtain and check | Stop if |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Before any payment | Certified copy of the deed and record of rights; seller's identity against the records; RERA page | The seller is not the person the records name and nothing explains it |
| 2. Title and chain | Parent deed and earlier transfers; succession or partition papers; encumbrance certificate | A gap in the chain, an unreleased mortgage, or an earlier sale of the same parcel |
| 3. Land status | Classification on the record of rights; conversion or NA order; restrictions in the notes column | Construction stands on land still classified agricultural, with no conversion order |
| 4. Approvals and structure | Sanctioned layout and plan; commencement, completion and occupancy certificates; what is built compared against the plan | The structure materially exceeds the sanction, or there is no occupancy certificate |
| 5. Municipal and society | Assessment extract; tax receipts and clearance; share certificate, no-objection certificate, dues; conveyance status | Substantial arrears nobody will clear before registration |
| 6. Agreement | Property identified; price and schedule; completion date; cost allocation; default remedies; title conditions | It is silent on remedies, or carpet area is not stated |
| 7. Funding and value | The lender's legal and technical report, a second opinion worth reading; the value duty will be assessed on | The report flags something undisclosed |
| 8. Registration | Draft deed read line by line; duty and fees assessed; identity, photographs, witnesses; originals handed over | The draft describes a different property, extent or consideration |
| 9. After registration | Deed collected; mutation applied for; utility and society transfers; assessment changed to your name | — |
One habit does more than the rest of the list: compare every document against the physical property, not only against the other documents. A folder can be internally consistent and still describe something that is not what you are standing in.
When the seller cannot produce a document
Missing papers are common and not always sinister. The question is the same each time: can the document be reconstructed from the issuing office, or is it missing because it never existed?
A lost registered deed can be replaced by a certified copy from the sub-registrar's office where it was registered, and that copy is admissible, so a seller who says the deed cannot be replaced is mistaken or evading. A record of rights that is out of date usually means mutation was never completed, which the seller can and should fix. A missing tax receipt can be rebuilt from the municipal payment history.
The harder cases are documents no office can issue because they were never granted: no conversion order, because conversion was never applied for; no occupancy certificate, because a clearance was never obtained or the building deviates from sanction; no society conveyance, because the promoter never executed it. Here the seller will offer an indemnity, a price adjustment or an assurance that it is in process. An indemnity from a seller who may be untraceable in five years is worth little. A price adjustment is worth something if you can quantify the exposure. An assurance is worth nothing unless it is a condition in the agreement with money held back.
Three situations deserve particular care: title through succession with no partition deed or probate, where every heir must join the sale and one absent heir can unwind it later; a sale by a power of attorney holder, where the power must be registered, current and wide enough to cover a sale; and a mortgaged property, where the originals sit with the lender and the release must be sequenced with the sale rather than promised. Once the documents check out, the remaining work is the money, covered in stamp duty, registration and property tax.
Frequently asked questions
Which single document proves ownership of property in India?
None does on its own. The registered sale deed is the primary title document, but it only proves that title passed from the named seller. You also need the parent deeds showing how the seller got title, the record of rights, an encumbrance certificate and the municipal records to be reasonably satisfied about ownership.
Is an unregistered sale deed valid?
It does not convey title. Registration of a sale deed of immovable property is compulsory under the Registration Act 1908, and an unregistered instrument cannot be relied on to establish the transfer. Money paid against one leaves you with a claim against the seller rather than ownership of the property.
What is the difference between an agreement to sell and a sale deed?
An agreement to sell is a contract to transfer the property in future on stated terms. A sale deed carries out the transfer. Until the deed is executed and registered you hold a right to enforce the contract, not ownership, and your remedy on default is specific performance or damages.
Is a conveyance deed the same as a sale deed?
A sale deed is one kind of conveyance deed, the kind used when the transfer is for money. Gift, relinquishment, partition and exchange deeds are also conveyances. In housing societies the word conveyance usually refers separately to the promoter transferring the land and building to the society.
What is deemed conveyance?
It is a conveyance to a housing society ordered and executed by a designated competent authority without the promoter's cooperation, where the promoter has failed to execute it. The mechanism exists under Maharashtra's ownership flats legislation. Other states have different provisions, and some have no equivalent unilateral route.
Completion certificate or occupancy certificate: which do I need before possession?
The occupancy certificate. The completion certificate says the building matches the sanctioned plan; the occupancy certificate says it is fit to be occupied, with services and statutory clearances in place. Possession offered without an occupancy certificate affects utilities, lending and resale.
Does the 7/12 extract prove I own the land?
No. The 7/12 extract is Maharashtra's record of rights, a revenue document recording the parcel, its classification, the person in possession and the revenue liability. It is strong evidence of possession and very useful, but revenue entries neither create nor extinguish title.
What is the record of rights called in my state?
It is the 7/12 extract in Maharashtra and Gujarat, RTC or pahani in Karnataka, pahani and ROR in Telangana, adangal and 1-B in Andhra Pradesh, patta in Tamil Nadu, jamabandi or fard in Punjab and Haryana, khatauni in Uttar Pradesh, porcha in West Bengal and thandaper in Kerala.
Can I build a house on agricultural land?
Not until the land use is converted. Conversion is granted by the District Collector or the designated revenue authority under the state's land revenue law, and is called NA permission, DC conversion or change of land use depending on the state. Several states also restrict who may buy agricultural land.
What happens if a building went up without land conversion?
The use of the land was never permitted, so the structure is irregular regardless of other approvals. Typically there is no occupancy certificate, permanent utility connections are difficult, assessment may be penal, lenders decline, and regularisation charges or proceedings fall on whoever owns it then.
How do I verify a project on the state RERA portal?
Search by the registration number from the advertisement rather than the project name, confirm it covers your phase and tower and has not lapsed, check the promoter entity against your agreement, open the uploaded approvals, note the declared completion date, read the quarterly progress updates and check complaints against the promoter.
The seller has lost the original sale deed. Can the sale still go ahead?
Usually yes. A certified copy can be obtained from the sub-registrar's office where the deed was registered, and that copy is admissible. Find out why the original is missing, check whether it is with a lender against a mortgage, and have an advocate confirm the chain before you pay.
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