Most plot disputes we see did not need a lawyer to prevent. They needed somebody to ask for a document early, read the answer, and walk away. Here is the list we work from. Your advocate will want more; none of this replaces them.
1. The title deed, and the one before it
The current sale deed shows how the seller got it. The previous one shows how the person before them did. A chain that goes back cleanly is worth more than any assurance about it. If the seller can produce this week’s deed but nothing behind it, ask why.
2. The mutation record
A sale deed says a sale happened. Mutation says the revenue record was updated to match. Both should exist and they should agree on the name and the area. If they disagree, that gap is the dispute you would be buying.
3. The jamabandi and the khasra number
The revenue extract tells you who the record says owns it, how much, and what kind of land it is. Read the land classification carefully. Agricultural is agricultural until somebody with authority says otherwise, in writing, with a number on it.
4. The licence or approved layout
For a plot inside a colony, this is the document that decides whether you can build. Get the number and check it against the issuing authority’s own list. “Approval is in process” means you are buying a hope with a completion date nobody controls.
5. Proof the approach road exists on paper
Not that you drove there. That the road is part of the sanctioned layout or is a recorded public road. A plot reached across somebody else’s field is a plot with a future argument attached.
6. Encumbrance and dues
Any mortgage, any loan, any charge registered against the land. Plus the development dues, the electricity connection charges and anything else outstanding. Whoever owns it on the day the bill lands, pays it.
7. Identity, and the right to sell
Who is signing, and can they. Jointly held land needs every holder. Inherited land needs the succession settled. Land held by a company needs a board resolution. A power of attorney is not ownership, and a general power of attorney sale is not a sale.
The answer that should end the conversation
“Sab clear hai, papers baad me dikha denge.” Nobody who has the papers minds showing them. A seller who wants a token before you have seen the title is telling you the token is the point.
What we do with this list
We ask for all seven before a plot goes on our site, and we tell you on the page which ones we have actually seen. Where a project is registered, the registration number and the phase are on the listing under Legal and compliance — check it yourself on your state RERA portal, and have your own advocate read the deed before you pay anything.
