Before You Buy the Plot: 12 Checks That Stop a Build Before It Starts

Almost every house that stalls halfway in India was decided long before the first brick. It was decided at the plot — an unconverted land classification, a road that turns out not to be a road, a co-owner nobody mentioned. The architect gets blamed for the delay, but the problem was bought, not built. 🧾

Here are the twelve checks worth completing before you transfer money, roughly in the order that will save you the most time.

1. Read the record of rights, and read the whole thing

Every state maintains a record of rights for each parcel. It goes by different names — the 7/12 extract or satbara in Maharashtra, RTC or pahani in Karnataka, patta and chitta in Tamil Nadu, khatauni in Uttar Pradesh, jamabandi in Punjab and Haryana. It shows who is recorded as holder, the survey number, the area, and the land's classification.

Most states publish it free online. Maharashtra's is at mahabhumi.gov.in, Karnataka's at landrecords.karnataka.gov.in, Uttar Pradesh's at upbhulekh.gov.in. If you are not sure which portal applies, the Department of Land Resources maintains a directory of state services under its citizen-centric services pages, part of the Digital India Land Records Modernization Programme.

The single most-skipped part of this document is the other rights column. Mortgages, charges, tenancy entries and inheritance claims are recorded there. A clean-looking holder name at the top means very little if that column has entries you have not read.

2. Pull the encumbrance certificate

An encumbrance certificate lists the registered transactions against a property over a period you specify. It is issued by the sub-registrar's office, and increasingly online — Tamil Nadu through tnreginet.gov.in, and eighteen states and union territories through the National Generic Document Registration System, which also allows document search and certified copies.

Ask for a longer period than the seller offers. Thirteen years is commonly quoted; thirty is what a careful advocate will want, because that is roughly the window in which an adverse claim can still surface.

3. Trace the title chain, not just the current sale deed

The current owner's sale deed proves how they acquired it. It does not prove that the person who sold it to them had the right to. A title search walks the chain of transfers backwards, checking that each link was validly executed and registered, and that no partition, will, gift or court decree in between was ignored.

This is the check that most justifies paying a property advocate rather than doing it yourself.

4. Confirm the land classification — and whether conversion is needed

Agricultural land cannot be built on until it is converted to non-agricultural use, and the size of what you intend to build makes no difference. The process and the authority differ by state: application to the Collector under the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code, 1966 in Maharashtra, Section 90A conversion in Rajasthan, land use change under the relevant town planning act elsewhere.

Two traps here. First, conversion is a revenue-department process and is separate from building permission, which is a planning-authority process — you need both, in that order. Second, an "NA plot" advertised in a layout may mean the layout was converted, which is not the same as your specific parcel being clean. Ask for the conversion order and match the survey number on it.

Our Authorities Made Easy series sets out who governs what, city by city, with the portal for each.

5. Check the zoning and the master plan, not just the classification

Converted land in a zone reserved for industry, a green belt, a road widening line or a public amenity will still not get you a house. Zoning comes from the development plan or master plan of the planning authority, and reservations are marked on the plan sheet, not on your title papers.

Cadastral maps for many states are published on bhunaksha.nic.in, which is useful for locating the parcel, but the reservation question has to be answered against the current development plan held by the planning authority.

6. Verify legal access

A plot with no legally recorded access is close to unbuildable, and it is astonishingly common. The mud track everyone uses may be another person's land used by habit. Confirm that access is recorded — a public road abutting the plot, or a registered right of way.

Also confirm the width of the abutting road. In most Indian development control regulations, permissible FSI, height and setbacks are tied to road width. A narrow approach road can cut what you are allowed to build by a large margin, on a plot that is otherwise perfect.

7. Get the boundaries demarcated on the ground

Have a licensed surveyor demarcate the parcel and measure it against the record. Discrepancies between recorded area and actual area are routine, and encroachment by a neighbour's compound wall is easier to discover before you own it than after. Insist the seller be present.

8. Confirm mutation is complete

Registration transfers the title; mutation updates the revenue record to show the new holder. They are separate steps, and a gap between them is a frequent source of dispute. Check that the seller's own mutation was completed after they bought — if it was never done, you are buying from someone the record does not yet recognise.

9. Ask who else could claim a share

Ancestral and jointly held property is where most family litigation starts. Establish whether the property is self-acquired or inherited, identify every co-owner and legal heir, and obtain consent from all of them. For inherited land, a succession or legal heir certificate matters. Where a co-owner is a minor, the transaction usually needs court permission.

10. Clear the dues

Property tax, land revenue, water and electricity dues, and any society or development-authority charges travel with the property in practical terms — you will be the one asked to settle them. Get receipts up to date, and a no-dues position in writing.

11. Check for litigation and acquisition

Pending suits, stay orders, attachment by a bank, or inclusion in a notified acquisition for a road, metro or irrigation project are all disqualifying and none of them appear on the title deed. A local advocate can check court records and the district gazette notifications.

12. Budget for stamp duty and registration properly

Stamp duty is set by the state and commonly falls somewhere between 4 and 8 per cent of the higher of consideration or the government's ready reckoner value, with registration fees on top, and concessions in several states where the buyer is a woman. Many states process this through NGDRS or a state equivalent. Look up the current rate for your state rather than assuming — this is a large number to discover late.

The three that get skipped

Nearly everyone reads the sale deed. In practice the three checks that most often turn out to have been skipped are:

• The other rights column on the record of rights. Two minutes of reading.
• Road width against the local development control rules. It determines how much house you get.
• Reservations on the current development plan. Title can be perfect and the plot still unbuildable.

Frequently asked questions

Can I start design work before the plot purchase is complete?

Yes, and it is often sensible — an architect can tell you what the plot will actually yield under local FSI, setback and road-width rules, which is information you want before you commit. What should not begin before the papers are clean is the approval filing or any construction.

How long does agricultural to non-agricultural conversion take?

Stated service standards in several states are measured in weeks. Real timelines are usually longer and depend heavily on how complete the application is. Treat any assurance of a fixed date with caution, and never let a construction contract depend on it.

Is an online record of rights enough, or do I need a certified copy?

The online extract is right for screening. For the transaction itself, obtain certified copies from the revenue or registration office — those are the documents a bank, a court or a planning authority will accept.

Do I need a lawyer if the plot is in an approved layout by a development authority?

An approved layout removes some risk, particularly around zoning and access, but not the title chain, not co-owner claims and not dues. The cost of a title search is a rounding error against the price of the plot.

What does ULPIN or Bhu-Aadhaar mean on my document?

It is a 14-digit identifier assigned to a land parcel based on its geo-coordinates, rolled out under the land records modernization programme to give each parcel a single unambiguous reference. Where it exists it makes matching the paper to the ground much easier.

The cheapest way to find out what a plot is actually worth building on is to ask someone who has filed in that ward before. You can browse architects on Member of Architecture, see their published work and message them directly — no commission on either side.

Sources: the Department of Land Resources' citizen-centric services and DILRMP pages, the National Generic Document Registration System, bhunaksha.nic.in, and the state land records portals of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh linked above. Stamp duty bands are indicative; rates are set by each state and change. Confirm the current position before acting.