Encumbrance Certificates in Maharashtra: What Buyers Should Check

In Maharashtra the record is the sub-registrar's index

An encumbrance is any claim on a property that travels with it: a mortgage, a lease, a charge in someone's favour, a pending sale. In Maharashtra the place they are recorded is the sub-registrar's index of registered documents, which IGR Maharashtra lets you search online by property and by name. Many buyers ask for an "encumbrance certificate" as a single document. What protects you here is a search of that index over the whole period of the title chain, read by an advocate.

Why it matters

A registered mortgage stays on the property when it changes hands. If the seller's loan was never closed, the bank's claim follows the flat into your name. The same goes for a registered agreement to sell the property to someone else that was never cancelled.

What the advocate's search should cover

Ask the advocate to search the index for every registered document on the property over the full period of the title chain, and to list each one with its date and nature. Every mortgage on that list needs a matching release or the bank's closure letter. Every earlier agreement to sell needs a registered cancellation or the completed sale that followed it.

Have the advocate check the 7/12 extract or the property card as well, because some charges, such as loans from cooperative societies on agricultural land, appear in the land record. Ask for the fee in writing before the work starts.

What the index does not show

Court cases are not in the sub-registrar's index. A property under litigation can be sold and registered. Have the advocate search eCourts for the property and the seller's name, and read the property tax and society records for arrears, which stay with the flat.

For a new project, read the promoter's declaration

A promoter registering a project with MahaRERA must declare on affidavit that the land is free from all encumbrances, or give details of each one, under section 4(2)(l)(B) of the RERA Act. The declaration is on the project's page at maharera.maharashtra.gov.in, the only official site.

Read it before booking, then have the advocate compare it with the index search. A construction loan against the project land is common and need not stop you. What matters is that it was declared, and that the agreement for sale says how your flat will be released from it.

When the seller still owes a bank

This is the most common encumbrance on a resale flat and the easiest to clear. Ask the seller's bank for a letter stating the outstanding amount and how it will hand over the title documents on payment. Pay that amount directly to the bank, and the rest to the seller. Collect the original title documents and the bank's closure letter at registration.

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