Property Registration Checklist
Registration day, and the week after it, without a second trip.
Free, no sign-up. 5 sections, 37 checks. Edit it to fit your own transaction.
Registration is a short appointment that people arrive at unprepared, and a missing witness or an unsigned annexure sends everyone home for another day. The work is almost entirely in the preparation: the deed correct, the duty paid, the parties and witnesses present with the right identity papers.
Procedure, appointment systems and the exact set of annexures differ between states and sometimes between offices in one city. Confirm the local requirement with the sub-registrar office or your state registration portal before the day, and use this to make sure nothing general has been forgotten.
Before the appointment
Every item here is easier to fix a week early than on the morning.
- Draft deed read end to end by you, not only by the person who prepared it
- Names, parentage and addresses of all parties match their PAN and Aadhaar exactly
- Property description, boundaries and area match the earlier title documents
- Schedule of property attached, and consistent with the approved plan
- Stamp duty and registration fee computed and paid by the method your state accepts
- Appointment or token booked, where your state requires one
- Two witnesses confirmed, with their identity papers ready
- Confirm whether all parties must attend in person, and who may act on a power of attorney
Papers to carry — buyer
- Original draft deed, plus the number of copies the office requires
- PAN and Aadhaar, original and copies, for every buyer
- Passport photographs as required by the office
- Proof of stamp duty and registration fee payment
- Bank sanction letter and the demand draft or payment proof for the consideration
- Form for reporting the transaction where the value crosses the threshold that requires it
- Identity papers for both witnesses
Papers to carry — seller
- Original title documents and the previous sale deed
- Encumbrance certificate for the period required
- Latest property tax receipt
- Khata, patta or the state equivalent
- Approved plan, and occupancy certificate where applicable
- Society share certificate, NOC and no-dues certificate, for a society flat
- Loan closure and release of mortgage papers, if a loan was on the property
- PAN and Aadhaar, original and copies, for every seller
At the office
- Read the final printed deed once more before signing — check the consideration and the area
- Confirm the spelling of every name and the property schedule on the printed copy
- All parties sign where indicated, and initial every page
- Witnesses sign in the presence of the registering officer
- Biometrics and photographs captured for the parties as the office requires
- Ask for the receipt and note the document number and the date
- Confirm when the registered deed will be available for collection
After registration
Registration transfers the deed. It does not update the revenue record on its own.
- Collect the registered deed and check the scan of every page before leaving
- Apply for mutation so the revenue record shows your name
- Transfer the electricity connection and the water connection
- Apply to the society for transfer of the share certificate and membership
- Update the property tax record with the municipal body
- Hand the original to the lender, if the loan requires deposit of title, and take a receipt
- Keep certified copies and a complete scan somewhere other than the house itself
Registration and mutation are two different things
A registered sale deed records the transfer between you and the seller. Mutation updates the government’s revenue record to show you as the person liable for tax on it. People frequently assume the first does the second, discover otherwise years later when they sell, and then have to reconstruct a paper trail. Start the mutation within weeks, not eventually.
Check the printed deed, not the draft
The copy printed at the office is the one that gets registered, and small differences from the draft you approved do occur — a transposed digit in the area, a name spelled a second way, a missing annexure. Read the consideration, the area and every name on the printed copy before anyone signs.
Do not rely on a single original
Once the deed is registered, get certified copies and a full scan. If the original goes to a lender against the loan, a certified copy is what you will use for the society, the utilities and the mutation application, and reconstructing a lost original is an expensive, slow exercise.
Common questions
Who pays the stamp duty, the buyer or the seller?
By convention in most transactions the buyer pays stamp duty and registration charges, but it is a matter of agreement between the parties and should be stated in the deed rather than assumed. The rate itself is set by the state and varies — including, in several states, by the gender of the buyer — so confirm the current figure with the sub-registrar rather than relying on a number quoted to you months earlier.
Can someone register on my behalf if I cannot attend?
Generally yes, through a properly executed power of attorney in favour of the person attending, but the form required and whether it must itself be registered or attested vary by state and by whether you are in India at the time. Confirm the exact requirement with the sub-registrar office before relying on it, particularly if you are abroad.
What happens if there is a mistake in the registered deed?
A genuine error is usually corrected by executing and registering a rectification deed with both parties, which is straightforward while relations are good and difficult once they are not. That is the practical argument for reading the printed copy carefully on the day rather than filing it unread.
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