Documents to check before you buy

A flat in Bangalore is the top floor of a pile of paper. At the bottom is the land: who owns it, whether anyone else has a claim on it, and whether it may be used for housing at all. On that sits the permission to build, then the building itself, and only at the top, your flat. A flaw at any layer is a flaw in everything above it, which is why a good lawyer reads from the bottom up.

This guide takes the same route. For each document it says what it proves, who issues it, where you can check it yourself, since most are now online, and what should make you stop. It is a guide to what to ask for, not a substitute for a lawyer’s title report, which is worth every rupee on a purchase this size.

Layer 1: the land

Title: who owns it

Ownership of land passes through a chain of registered documents: the original “mother deed”, then each sale, partition, gift or inheritance since. Under the Transfer of Property Act, property worth ₹100 or more can only be sold by a registered deed. A “sale” made through an agreement, a general power of attorney and a will, still common in older Bengaluru layouts, passes no title at all; the Supreme Court said so plainly in 2011, in Suraj Lamp & Industries. A link like that anywhere in the chain is a gap in the title.

No law says how far back a title search must go. In practice lawyers and banks trace anywhere from 13 to 30 years, and more where the records allow. The Supreme Court asked in 2025 for a standard approach; RBI was still consulting banks on one in mid-2026. On a flat, the chain to check is the land the project stands on, back to a clean starting point.

The encumbrance certificate

An encumbrance certificate, or EC, lists every document registered against a property over the period you search: sales, mortgages, releases, partitions, development agreements. Despite its name it is not only about debts. It comes in two forms: Form 15 when there are entries, and Form 16, the “nil” EC, when there are none.

You can apply for one online through Kaveri 2.0, the state’s registration system. Its online records are reliable from April 2004; for earlier years you need a search at the sub-registrar’s office. Two limits matter. An EC is built from registration records, so it cannot show anything that was never registered: an oral agreement, an unregistered family settlement, a court case. And the Karnataka High Court has held that an EC is not proof of title. It tells you what was registered, not who owns the land.

1. The office. The EC comes from the registration records of the sub-registrar covering the property.
2. The period searched. Online records start in April 2004; older years need a search at the office, and a thorough title check goes back further than any EC.
3. The description. The survey and hissa number, village and extent should match the title deeds, the RTC, the conversion order and the sanctioned plan exactly.
4. A mortgage. The land has been pledged to a lender. That is common; what matters is the next entry.
5. The release. The mortgage was repaid and discharged. A mortgage with no release is a live claim on the land.
6. The development agreement. Expected in a joint development. The power of attorney that goes with it is recorded in a separate register that an EC does not reflect, so ask for a certified copy of that too, and check whose share your flat falls in.
7. What it cannot show. Anything unregistered, and any court case. That is why the EC is one check, not the whole title search.

Our guide to the encumbrance certificate goes further: getting one on Kaveri, reading each entry, and what it cannot show.

RTC and the mutation register

Most new projects stand on land that was once farmland, and farmland lives in the revenue records. The RTC, or pahani, records the owner, extent and use of each survey number; the mutation register records how ownership changed. Both are on the state’s Bhoomi portal, current and old, and a printable i-RTC can be downloaded for a small fee.

Read them with care. The law presumes an RTC entry is correct until someone proves otherwise, but the Supreme Court has made clear that a mutation entry is for revenue purposes and does not by itself confer title. So use the RTC and mutation register to check the story the deeds tell: the same owners, in the same order, for every survey number in the project, ending with an entry that shows the land was converted.

Our guide to land records: RTC and mutation reads an RTC column by column.

Conversion: permission to use it for housing

Farmland cannot be used for housing until it is converted to non-agricultural use under section 95 of the Karnataka Land Revenue Act. Karnataka simplified this in 2023: an application now comes with an affidavit, and where the intended use matches the master plan the conversion is deemed to be granted if the Deputy Commissioner does not act within a set time. A false affidavit voids the conversion. The state has since moved to drop the separate step altogether where the use matches a published master plan.

Whatever route was taken, check the conversion order itself: that the survey and hissa numbers and the area match the RTC and the deeds, that the permitted use is residential, that the conditions and fee receipt are there, that a sketch is attached where only part of a survey number was converted, and that the RTC now shows the conversion.

Our guide to converted land and risky land covers conversion in depth, and the land types – PTCL, inam, gomala, B-kharab – that no conversion can fix.

Joint development: whose land, whose flat

Many Bengaluru projects are joint developments: the landowner puts in the land, the developer builds, and the flats are divided between them. The joint development agreement must be registered where it creates an interest in the land, and the landowner usually gives the developer a power of attorney to sell. Karnataka passed an amendment in 2025 making every power of attorney to transfer immovable property compulsorily registrable; check whether it is in force when you buy.

For a buyer, the question is whose share your flat is in. Ask for the registered agreement and the sharing arrangement, and check the power of attorney is registered and has not been revoked. If your flat is in the landowner’s share, the landowner should be a party to your sale deed. Our guide to reading a RERA filing shows where the land title and any joint development appear on the register.

Our guide to buying in a joint development goes further: the sharing schedule, the power of attorney and who signs your documents.

Layer 2: permission to build

The sanctioned building plan

Inside the Greater Bengaluru area, building plans are sanctioned by the Commissioner of the relevant city corporation, through the online building plan approval system, with the Greater Bengaluru Authority as the planning authority. A sanction is valid for five years, with up to two more for a building still under way. Outside the city corporations, plans are approved by the local planning authority: the Bangalore Development Authority for its own area, or one of the authorities around the city, such as the Hoskote, Anekal or airport-area planning authorities.

Two rules make the plan easy to see. The sanctioned plan is a public document that the corporation has to publish on its website, and under RERA the builder has to display the sanctioned plans at the site once it starts taking bookings. Hold the plan against the brochure: the number of floors, the number of flats, the built-up area and FAR, the setbacks and the parking. Our project pages list each project’s planning permit and the authority that issued it.

The commencement certificate

Under the Greater Bengaluru Governance Act, work has to stop at plinth level until a site inspection confirms the foundations follow the plan, after which a plinth certificate lets construction continue; the approval system issues it as a commencement certificate. RERA will not register a project without one, so it should already be on the project’s RERA page before you are sold anything.

The RERA registration

Registration is where most of this paper is collected for you. With its application the promoter has to upload the approvals and commencement certificate, the sanctioned plan and specifications, the title deed and chain of title, encumbrance details and the conversion and land-use orders, the development agreement or the landowner’s consent, and the no-objection certificates the project needs. Our guide to reading a Karnataka RERA filing shows how to find them on the portal.

Clearances for bigger buildings

• Fire. For buildings of 15 metres and above, Bengaluru’s plan approval asks for a fire service no-objection, and the fire service issues a clearance before the building is occupied. The state’s fire law defines a high-rise from 21 metres, and a June 2026 draft would move the city rule to match; for now, check which applies to your building.
• Environment. A project with a built-up area of 20,000 square metres or more, counting every floor and basement, needs environmental clearance from the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority before construction starts. You can search for it on the national PARIVESH portal.
• Airport height. A building within 20 km of an airport, or 56 km of one with instrument approaches, needs a height clearance. Near Kempegowda International it comes from the Airports Authority of India, whose NOCAS site lets anyone look up clearances issued since 2016; near the Yelahanka air base it comes from the defence authorities, and near HAL Airport from HAL.

Lakes and storm drains

Bengaluru is built around its lakes and the storm-water drains, or rajakaluves, that join them, and nothing may be built in the buffer around either. The distances are measured from the edge of the lake or drain as the revenue records show it, and both were loosened recently: lake buffers now depend on the size of the lake, and drain buffers were cut in October 2025 from the 50, 25 and 15 metres of the city’s 2015 master plan.

Anything built inside a buffer is built without a valid approval, and that risk travels with the flat. To check a site, compare the buffer marked on the sanctioned plan with the revenue survey map, and ask your lawyer to look for a lake or drain on or beside the land.

Layer 3: the building

The occupancy certificate

The occupancy certificate, or OC, is the corporation’s confirmation that the finished building matches its sanctioned plan and may be lived in. The builder applies within 30 days of completion, with a certificate from an empanelled architect or engineer and as-built plans, and the building is inspected. Small deviations, up to 10%, can be regularised for a fee; larger ones cannot. An OC can be issued for part of a project, tower by tower, and it can be cancelled later if it was obtained wrongly.

It matters for more than paperwork. By law, BESCOM and BWSSB may not give a building a permanent electricity or water connection without an OC, and in December 2024 the Supreme Court directed that utilities connect only buildings with a completion or occupation certificate, and that banks check for one before lending. The exemptions Karnataka has since made are for small houses on small plots, not apartment projects. Under Karnataka’s model agreement the builder has to hand you the OC for your flat when the sale deed is executed, and once it is issued you have two months to take possession.

The completion certificate

RERA also refers to a completion certificate: confirmation that the project was built to its sanctioned plan and specifications. In Bengaluru the approval system issues a building completion certificate alongside the OC. No GST is due on a flat whose whole price is paid after it is issued, as our full-cost guide explains.

If your tower has a partial OC while the rest of the project is still being built, you can move in, but the clubhouse, landscaping and other common areas may not be finished. Ask which parts of the project the OC covers, and when the rest will follow.

The Greater Bengaluru Governance Act also treats occupation as permitted if the corporation neither issues nor refuses an OC within 30 days of the builder’s completion notice. A builder relying on that should be able to show you the notice and its date; an OC in hand is still the better answer.

Our guide to OC and CC goes further: partial and deemed OCs, and what a missing OC stops.

What to ask for at handover

• The OC for your tower, and which blocks and floors it covers if it is a partial one.
• The completion certificate, where the builder has one.
• The fire service’s clearance for occupation, for a building of 15 metres or more.
• Permanent electricity and water connections, in the flat’s name, not a temporary supply.
• The khata position: the bulk khata application, and when the final e-khata will follow.
• The registered deed of declaration and your deed of apartment, where the building is under the 1972 Act.
• The as-built plans, so you can see any deviation from the sanctioned plan and whether it was regularised.

Layer 4: your flat

The allotment letter and agreement for sale

The allotment letter reserves your flat. The agreement for sale fixes the terms: the flat, its carpet area, the price, the payment plan and the possession date. Under RERA a builder cannot take more than 10% of the price until that agreement is signed and registered, and in Karnataka it has to follow the model form in the state’s RERA rules. Our full-cost guide covers what that model says the price must include.

The deed of declaration

An apartment building can be brought under the Karnataka Apartment Ownership Act, 1972, by registering a deed of declaration. It sets out the land, the building, every flat with its number and area, the common areas, and each flat’s percentage share of the land, which is also its share of the vote in the owners’ association. Once a building is under the Act, the declaration, each flat’s deed of apartment and the certified floor plans all have to be registered. Find your flat in it and check the undivided share. A new Karnataka apartment law passed the legislature in August 2026 but is not yet in force; the 1972 Act still applies.

The sale deed

The sale deed is the registered document that makes the flat yours, with its undivided share of the land. Nothing short of it transfers ownership. It is registered through Kaveri 2.0 at the sub-registrar’s office (our registration-day guide has the steps), and since late 2024 the sub-registrar will not register a property in Bengaluru without an e-khata. Since a 2024 amendment, a sub-registrar must also refuse to register forged documents, transactions prohibited by law and attached property, and a District Registrar can cancel a registration made in breach of that.

The khata

The khata is the property’s entry in the civic register, used for property tax. An A-khata marks a property that complies with the rules; a B-khata is a tax entry for one that does not, such as a building in an unapproved layout. A B-khata property can be sold, but loans and resale are harder. The Greater Bengaluru Authority opened a scheme in November 2025 to convert B-khata properties to A-khata for 5% of the guidance value, cut the fee to 2% for 100 days from May 2026, and left out land earmarked for roads, drains and other public use. Its terms have changed more than once, so check the ones in force when you buy, and treat a B-khata on a new flat as a question for the builder, not a formality.

For a new building, the developer applies for a bulk khata covering every flat. A provisional khata comes first and cannot be used for a sale; the final khata follows an inspection, and a building that breaks the rules gets a B-khata. Outside the city corporations, in panchayat areas, the equivalent is the e-Swathu record, and since April 2025 no new khata is issued for a site in an unapproved layout.

Getting your flat’s e-khata

The e-khata is the digital version of the khata, issued through the e-Aasthi portal of the Bengaluru city corporations. To apply you need an Aadhaar-based identity check, the number of your registered deed, the property-tax application number, the BESCOM account number and a photograph of the property. An encumbrance certificate is optional for the e-khata itself but becomes necessary once the e-khata is used to register a sale or change the owner’s name, so expect to need one either way.

For a flat bought from a builder, the order is: the developer’s bulk khata for the building, then the final khata for your flat, then the e-khata in your name after your sale deed is registered. Ask the builder where the bulk application stands before you fix a registration date, because without an e-khata the sub-registrar will not register the sale.

Our guide to A-khata, B-khata and e-khata takes all of this further: the B-to-A conversion scheme, the e-Aasthi steps, and khata in panchayat areas.

When each document exists

Not every document can be shown to you on the day you book. Some exist before the builder sells a single flat; others only at completion. Knowing which is which tells you what to insist on now and what to insist on later.

The checklist

Every document in this guide on one sheet: what it proves, where you can check it and when it exists.

Red flags

Get the lawyer’s report

Everything above can be checked by a buyer, and much of it online. But the one document that ties it together is a title report from a lawyer of your own, who searches the records, reads the chain and puts their opinion in writing. Your bank will run its own check before it lends, and a project already on its approved list has been through that once. Neither is a reason to skip your own.