Registration day, step by step

You can pay for a flat in full and still not own it. A sale of property worth ₹100 or more has to be made by a registered deed, and the Supreme Court held in 2011, in Suraj Lamp & Industries, that an agreement to sell, a power of attorney or a will passes no title. Until the sub-registrar has registered your sale deed, what you hold is a contract with the builder.

For a new flat, the builder has a deadline. Karnataka’s model agreement for sale, which every project registered with Karnataka RERA has to use, obliges the builder to execute the sale deed within three months of the occupancy certificate once you have paid the total price. It also lets the builder hold back registration until you deposit the stamp duty and registration fee, and the RERA Act requires every buyer to take part in registering the deed. The certificate sets the date, so the cash has to be ready when it arrives.

Registration in Karnataka now runs through Kaveri 2.0, the Department of Stamps and Registration’s online system. The deed is entered and checked online, the duty is paid online, and you go to the sub-registrar’s office once, at a time you book. This guide takes each step in order, what can hold it up, and what to do in the weeks after, on the same ₹1 crore flat and ₹75 lakh loan that the full-cost guide works through.

Before the day: the draft

Most of the work happens before you set foot in the office. The department counts property registration as a single visit, with everything else done online: entering the deed, uploading the papers, the sub-registrar’s check, the payment and the appointment.

Check the draft before it goes in

Whoever drafts the deed, have your own lawyer read it before anything is entered on Kaveri, for a reason the system itself sets. You can submit an unsigned draft for approval, but once the sub-registrar has approved it, the department says, “no changes be made to the content of the document except the description made in the payment schedule”. That exception exists so the cheque or draft numbers of your loan can be added. The names of the parties, the description of the property, the kind of document and the price cannot change.

So read the draft against your registered agreement for sale, line by line:

• The parties. The builder, and the landowner too if your flat falls in the landowner’s share of a joint development; the documents guide explains why.
• The schedule. Block, floor and flat number, the carpet area, your undivided share of the land and your parking, matching the agreement and the deed of declaration.
• The final carpet area. The model agreement makes the builder confirm the carpet area after the occupancy certificate. If it has shrunk, the builder must refund the difference within 60 days, with interest; if it has grown, the builder can charge for no more than 3% extra, at the agreed rate. The carpet-area guide shows how to read the figure.
• The price. The total you have paid, instalment by instalment, matching your receipts.

Entering it on Kaveri

The data entry is done on the Kaveri portal, under one login from start to finish: a document cannot be uploaded from a login other than the one that started the application. For a sale deed, Kaveri fetches the property and its owner from the civic record, e-Aasthi in Bengaluru, and the seller’s details cannot be edited. So the flat’s e-khata has to exist, in the seller’s name, before the entry can go through. Since late 2024 a sale in Bengaluru has not been registrable without one.

At the same stage the portal shows any dues on the property and any restriction recorded against it, such as a court injunction or a bar on selling government land, and you work out the value yourself from the published guidance value. The papers the deed relies on are uploaded for the sub-registrar to see, and where anyone signs under a power of attorney, the power of attorney has to be uploaded too.

The sub-registrar’s check

Once you submit, the sub-registrar has 24 hours to approve the application or send it back with remarks. If it comes back, you correct the same application and resubmit it; nothing has to be entered again. The officer can correct the market value if you picked the wrong guidance value, and return the application to you. But the sub-registrar has no power to suggest changes to the body of the deed, and cannot reject it for that. The duty is checked at more than one level, and high-value documents are also sent to the department’s auditors to verify it.

The documents to have ready

Some of these are uploaded with the application; all of them should be with you on the day. Each comes from the Registration Act, the department’s own guidance, the model agreement or a lender’s published list.

• The approved deed, printed, for everyone to sign: word for word the draft the sub-registrar approved.
• The flat’s e-khata, showing the seller the deed names. The documents guide explains how a builder’s bulk khata becomes one for each flat.
• Identity for every party and both witnesses, with Aadhaar for authentication, under the rules set out below.
• PAN cards for buyer and seller. SBI lists them among the papers for registering a new flat, and the TDS you deducted on each instalment was deposited against both.
• The builder’s authority to sign: the document that lets its representative act for the company, and any power of attorney the builder signs under. The sub-registrar has to be satisfied that anyone acting for someone else has the right to.
• The earlier deeds the sale deed relies on: the title deeds, the development agreement in a joint development, and your registered agreement for sale.
• The occupancy certificate. The model agreement makes the builder hand it to you at the time of the sale deed.
• A no-objection from the project’s lender, if the builder borrowed against the project. SBI’s list includes “NOC from banks”.
• Proof that the duty and fee are paid, from Kaveri.

Two changes in the pipeline would turn more of this list into law. A further amendment to the Registration Act, passed by the Legislative Assembly in 2025, would let the sub-registrar refuse a property transfer that is not accompanied by prescribed documents, “including but not limited to the property or land sketch sought to be sold, conversion order, sanctioned plan, electronic Khata or title deed”. The same bill would allow some documents to be registered electronically, with no visit at all. And draft rules published in November 2025 would let the state list documents to be refused if presented without “the mandatory approvals, records, clearances, certificates, permissions or authorisations” the law requires. Neither applies until it is final and in force, so ask the office which rules apply on your date.

Duty and fees on ₹1 crore

Once the sub-registrar approves the application, Kaveri tells you what to pay, and you pay online by net banking, debit or credit card, or UPI. The duty and fee are collected before the appointment, not at the counter. For a ₹1 crore flat bought from the builder, within city limits, with a ₹75 lakh loan, the bill looks like this:

The duty is 5% because the price is above ₹45 lakh. ₹7,60,000 on the deed, plus ₹37,500 on the mortgage and ₹200 for the witnesses, makes ₹7,97,700. The mortgage duty is on your bank’s document, not the deed, but it falls due in the same week.

Three things move these numbers. The value is the price in the deed or the guidance value for the flat, whichever is higher, so check the guidance value on Kaveri before you register. The rate is lower below ₹45 lakh, but only on a builder’s first sale, and the surcharge is 3% rather than 2% in panchayat areas; the full-cost guide has the detail. And the registration fee doubled on 31 August 2025, from ₹10 to ₹20 for every ₹1,000: on this flat, ₹1 lakh more than before. Applicants who had paid the old fee but not yet registered were asked to pay the difference.

None of this can go on the home loan. RBI does not let a bank count stamp duty and registration charges in the value it lends against, unless the home costs ₹10 lakh or less, so the whole ₹7.98 lakh comes from your savings. Keep every receipt: under the old tax regime, stamp duty and the registration fee count within the ₹1.5 lakh principal deduction for the year you pay them, as the home-loan guide explains.

If the sale falls through before registration, even after you have booked a slot, the department allows a refund of the stamp duty; once the document is registered, it does not. The agreement for sale was stamped separately when you signed it, at 0.5% of the value, or ₹50,000 on this flat, so ask whether that is adjusted against the sale deed. Karnataka also made Digital e-Stamp Rules in August 2025, under which a stamp is generated and stored electronically; they come into force on a date the government notifies.

Booking a slot

With the fee paid, you book the appointment on Kaveri: the date and time, and the office, within the registration district the flat falls in. Documents are taken first come, first served, and each office keeps an emergency quota of three appointments a day.

Plan the date around everyone who has to attend. You can reschedule at no charge, but only once 24 hours have passed since you booked. If a party is more than 30 minutes late, Kaveri postpones the appointment automatically. If someone does not turn up at all, you reschedule, or the office keeps the document pending and gives you an endorsement saying so. Until the document is presented, you can withdraw the application without penalty.

If you cannot be there

Registration normally happens at the office, and the Act allows two exceptions. On special cause being shown, the officer may attend at a residence to register a document; Kaveri charges ₹1,000 for this private attendance. And a person who cannot attend without risk because of bodily infirmity is not required to: the officer goes to them, or issues a commission to examine them.

A buyer abroad can act through a power of attorney, but only one executed and authenticated the way the Act requires: for someone living outside India, before a notary public, a court, a judge, a magistrate, or an Indian consul or vice-consul. Have a lawyer here settle the wording before you sign it abroad. A 2025 Karnataka amendment requires proof that the person who gave a power of attorney is alive, and makes a power of attorney to transfer property compulsorily registrable; check whether it is in force on your date.

On the day

The visit itself is short when the paperwork is right. In order:

Photos, fingerprints and Aadhaar

The photographs and fingerprints come from section 32-A of the Registration Act. Every person presenting a document “shall affix his passport size photograph and finger-prints to the document”, and where it transfers ownership of property, the photograph and fingerprints of “each buyer and seller of such property mentioned in the document shall also be affixed”. Every buyer named in the deed should plan to attend.

The rule on Aadhaar is a Government of Karnataka notification of 6 August 2025, issued under section 7 of the Aadhaar Act for the department’s “Registration of Immovable Properties”. It says that an individual “shall be required to undergo authentication, or furnish proof of possession of Aadhaar number”. If a fingerprint does not match, “any other mode of biometric-based authentication or one-time pin (OTP) based authentication shall, wherever feasible and admissible, be offered”. If neither works, the office can verify the QR code on your Aadhaar card or letter, or an offline e-KYC file, instead. Take the phone your Aadhaar is linked to. Someone with no Aadhaar number is expected to apply for one and, meanwhile, to identify themselves with the enrolment slip and a document such as a passport, voter ID or driving licence.

The witnesses

Two witnesses identify the parties to the document. The department’s FAQ says any adult who is neither the buyer nor the seller can be one, that a witness “needs to be present throughout the entire process”, and that Kaveri charges ₹100 for each. The witnesses need not be people who signed the deed, and they can be changed at the data-entry desk if one drops out. In 2024 the department listed as approved a change that would drop the identifying witnesses when Aadhaar identifies the seller; until your office confirms it applies, bring two.

Read it once more before signing

The paper you sign has to be the draft the sub-registrar approved. If the document presented differs from the one uploaded, the office records the difference in a digital endorsement. Before anyone signs, go through the printed copy page by page against the approved draft, above all the schedule of the property and the price. If anything is wrong, stop and ask the office how to correct the application, rather than sign and hope to fix it later.

If registration is refused

A sub-registrar can refuse a document, and since Karnataka amended the Registration Act in 2024 there are grounds on which the officer must. The new section 22-B reads:

Draft rules published in November 2025 set out how the officer applies it. A document is to be refused as forged when it is forged “on the face of it”, with the reasons written down; when a government database linked to Kaveri fails to confirm it; or when the identity of the people signing cannot be verified from the notified identity documents. Only transactions expressly notified as prohibited count, and the department is to keep registers of prohibited transactions and attached properties that the officer checks before registering. Those were draft rules, so check their final form.

Whatever the ground, a refusal is not a quiet no. The sub-registrar has to record an order with reasons, endorse “registration refused” on the document and, on request, give you a copy of the reasons free of charge. You can appeal to the District Registrar within 30 days. Where the refusal is because someone denied signing, you apply to the District Registrar within the same 30 days instead.

The amendment reaches back after registration too. If a document was registered in breach of section 22-B, the District Registrar can cancel the registration, on a complaint or on their own motion, after notice to everyone affected, and an appeal lies to the Inspector General of Registration within 30 days. Under the draft rules an application must normally come within three years of registration, with a fee of 1% of the stamp duty, between ₹1,000 and ₹10,000: ₹5,000 on this flat’s ₹5 lakh of duty. For a buyer this cuts both ways. It protects you against a forged link in the chain, and it means a flaw in the seller’s paper can surface after your deed is registered. It is no substitute for the title check in the documents guide.

Not every delay is a refusal. The department’s own rules and FAQs describe two kinds of trouble:

After the deed is registered

Your copy, and a check

The registered original comes back to you at the office. Kaveri also issues certified copies of registered documents, and encumbrance certificates, online and from any office. Once the registration shows on the system, apply for an encumbrance certificate for your flat: it should list your sale deed, and nothing registered against the flat that you do not recognise. Keep a scanned copy of the deed for yourself; if you have a home loan, the original is about to go to the bank.

The e-khata in your name

The khata has to move to your name, because the city corporation charges property tax to the person on its register. The Greater Bengaluru Governance Act gives the seller and the buyer three months after registration to notify the transfer, but says that where the sub-registrar “directly communicates and notifies the transfer” to the corporation, a separate notice is not needed. Kaveri generates that notice from the registration data. So check the flat on e-Aasthi, and if the change has not come through well before the three months are up, file the notice yourself. Until the change is recorded the seller stays liable for the tax as well, but that does nothing to reduce yours.

From then on the property tax is yours to pay: in two halves, by the end of May and the end of November, with a rebate of up to 5% for paying the whole year in the first month of the financial year. The documents guide covers the e-khata itself in more detail.

Electricity and water

If the flat’s electricity connection is in the builder’s name, transfer it. Under the conditions of supply that the state electricity regulator sets for BESCOM and the other distribution companies, a connection passes to a new person with the registered consumer’s consent letter or, failing that, proof of ownership such as a registered sale deed or khata; an indemnity bond from the new consumer; no arrears on the connection; a transfer fee; and a fresh supply agreement. Ask the builder for the consent letter at handover, and check for arrears before you take the connection on. Our guide to power and water in your name covers each step.

For water, BWSSB takes changes of ownership online, for a fee of ₹250, and its portal shows a 10-day time limit under the state’s public-service guarantee law. Ask first whether your flat has a connection number of its own or shares the building’s. The online route is only for premises with no construction added since the connection was sanctioned.

Your bank and the original deed

If part of your loan has not yet been released, ask the bank what it needs for the final release; ICICI Bank, for one, lists the sale deed among its disbursement documents. The original deed then goes to the bank as its security. The document recording that deposit of title deeds carries stamp duty of 0.5% of the loan, ₹37,500 on a ₹75 lakh loan, and HDFC Bank, for one, tells borrowers that “the originals will be in HDFC Bank’s custody till the full repayment of the loan”. When you repay, RBI requires a bank to return the originals within 30 days, and to pay you ₹5,000 for every day of delay it causes.

Before you go

• Read the draft against the agreement before it is submitted: parties, schedule, carpet area and price.
• Check the e-khata shows the flat and the seller correctly, with no dues flagged on Kaveri.
• Pay the duty and fee on Kaveri, ₹7.6 lakh on a ₹1 crore flat, from savings, and keep the receipts.
• Deduct and deposit the TDS on your final payment, as on every instalment before it.
• Book a slot everyone can make, knowing a reschedule is free but only after 24 hours.
• Bring every signatory and two witnesses, their identity documents and the phones their Aadhaar is linked to.
• Read the printed deed once more before anyone signs it.
• Afterwards, check the record: the encumbrance certificate, e-Aasthi, and the electricity and water connections in your name.