Before you buy any property there are a host of documents that you must verify before finally making any payment or entering into any contract. First thing I would do is ask the seller to physically show me the original title deeds which are with him. If the seller produces the original which he would obviously not part with but he can show them to you. Once he shows them to you, you are ensured that the property is not mortgaged and it is easier. If he does not have the original title deeds with him, that means they are lying with the bank and before entering into an agreement you will have to see that you ask for a no objection certificate from the bank and a no due certificate before you finally make any payments to the seller.
However if he has shown you the original title deeds then ask for a copy of the entire set of documents and what are these? From the seller you will ask for a certain set of documents. There are certain set of documents you will ask from the society and then there are certain set of documents which the buyer and the seller will jointly execute.
Let us take the first one where you ask for a certain set of documents from the seller. First is the share certificate. From that you will be able to see whether the sellers name is the last name in the share certificate as recorded by the society. The next is the entire chain of documents which are there from the original sale which took place between the developer and the original buyer or the allottee as the case may be till the seller in question right now, in which if transfers have happened by way of sale then ensure that all sale deeds are there. The stamp duties, registrations paid, the share certificate reflects the name of each subsequent transferee.
The transfer could have happened either by way of sale or through gifts or through inheritance.
In the case of gift ask for the gift deed. If it is inheritance then ask for the wills or the nominations as recorded in the society's records. All this will give you a fair idea of the titles and how they have flown from the developer till this.
On top of that ask for his latest electricity bills which will have his name, ask for the society bills, ask for the telephone bills and ask for the original payment receipts between the developer and the original buyer.
The next set of documents are the documents you should ask the society to give you. This will be facilitated by the seller. Ask for society registration documents, ask for the property card, ask for the occupation certificate. Then the society will give you a few details on its letterheads namely number of floors, the area of the building, the lifts etc. which is very important if you are taking a housing loan.
At an appropriate stage you will also need to get a no objection certificate from the society stating that they have no problems or they have no issues in transferring this flat to your name subject to all the payments and all the agreements between the buyer and the seller.
For this some societies have an informal interview where the managing committee members interview the incoming member for their references and validation.
Finally having done your legal due diligence, having verified various documents, obtained no objection certificate from the society, now is the time to execute a sale deed or an agreement to sell. This document is then subsequently to be registered with the registrar and appropriate stamp duties, adequate stamp duties need to be paid.
Once this is done you have to deposit these documents, a copy of these along with the transfer form duly signed by both the buyer and the seller to the society who will record this in their records and issue new certificates with your name now as the last owner.
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