What is a title search, and why every property buyer in India needs one

What is a title search in property?

Start with three words that buyers often mix up. Title is the legal right to own the property. Possession is who occupies it. Registration is the official record that a document was signed, stamped and filed. A seller can live in the flat and hold a registered agreement in his name, yet still not have full title, because a co-owner never signed, an heir was left out, or a bank holds the original papers.

So the title search meaning, in plain terms, is this: an advocate reads the seller's documents and then checks them against the public records, to see whether each transfer in the chain was valid and recorded and whether anything else affects the property today. The output is a title search report with the advocate's opinion on whether the title is clear and marketable. Marketable means a careful buyer, and a bank, would accept it without a lawsuit hanging over it.

Why registration alone does not prove ownership

Under the Registration Act, 1908 the Sub-Registrar records and indexes documents. He does not decide whether the person signing owned what he was selling. India follows what lawyers call presumptive titling: the records are evidence of title, not a state guarantee of it. That is why a buyer, a bank and a lawyer each read the chain for themselves rather than rely on the Index II of the last sale.

Why does a title search go back 30 years?

No statute says 30 years. The period comes from the Limitation Act, 1963, which fixes how long old claims stay alive. A mortgagor can sue to redeem a mortgage for 30 years (Article 61), and the government has 30 years for its suits (Article 112). A claim to possession based on title is generally lost 12 years after someone else's possession became adverse to the owner (Article 65). A 30-year title search therefore covers the window in which an old claim is most likely to come back.

Some searches cover less, for example where only a check for loans is wanted. Others need more. Inherited land, old village property and anything held on a government lease often have to be traced to the original grant, however old it is.

What records does a title search check?

The work has two halves: reading what the seller gives you, and searching the offices that hold the public record. These are the main sources for a flat or plot in Maharashtra.

In Navi Mumbai most land was allotted by CIDCO on long lease, so the search also covers the CIDCO allotment, the tripartite agreement and whether past transfers had CIDCO's permission where it was required. In Mumbai, older buildings may stand on Collector's land, or on land the builder never conveyed to the society, and the search has to pick that up as well. Our Mumbai title search guide goes further into those city records.

Title search before buying property: when should you order it?

Before you part with any money you cannot get back. Brokers often push for a token the same week, and a token paid without conditions is hard to recover once a defect turns up. If you must pay to hold the flat, pay a small amount against a receipt that says it is refundable if the title is not found clear.

The usual order runs like this. The seller hands over copies; your advocate reads them and lists what is missing; the searches and the public notice run; you get the report. Only then is the agreement for sale drafted, carrying any conditions the report raised. Your home loan bank will run its own search, but that protects the bank's security, not your purchase.

New flats in a MahaRERA project

For an under-construction flat, the risk sits in the land and in the developer's rights over it. When registering the project, the developer has to upload a legal title report to MahaRERA, and you should read it along with the development agreement and the encumbrances it lists. Your own search then covers the flat-level papers and anything that changed after registration.

What problems can a title search find?

Most defects fall into a handful of types. Each has a usual fix, and some have none.

A missing link in the chain

An earlier agreement may be lost, unregistered or never stamped. A sale of immovable property worth Rs 100 or more can only be made by a registered document (Section 54 of the Transfer of Property Act, 1882), so an unregistered transfer leaves a gap. Lost originals are common in older Mumbai flats. The usual cure is a complaint to the police recording the loss, a newspaper notice, certified copies from the Sub-Registrar and an indemnity from the seller, though some banks will still decline to lend.

A co-owner or heir who has not signed

If a flat stands in the names of three siblings, an agreement signed by one of them binds only that sibling's share and cannot pass the whole flat (Section 44 of the Transfer of Property Act). The same happens with inherited property when one heir, often living abroad, never signed a release deed. The search reads the succession papers and the society's records to find every person who must join the sale.

A loan the seller did not mention

Banks often take a mortgage by deposit of title deeds, which may not show up in an ordinary index search. A CERSAI search, a letter from the seller's bank and the originals themselves usually reveal it. Where there is a loan, the agreement should send part of the price straight to the bank against a closure letter and the return of the original papers.

Society conveyance never done

Many older Mumbai societies never received a conveyance of the land and building from the original builder. The flat can still be sold, but redevelopment and some loans become harder. The remedy is a deemed conveyance under Section 11 of the Maharashtra Ownership Flats Act, 1963, granted by the District Deputy Registrar of Co-operative Societies. Our note on housing society disputes in Maharashtra explains how that works.

An old will, or a case in court

Until the Repealing and Amending Act, 2025 omitted Section 213 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925, probate was compulsory for wills by Hindus and some other communities made in Mumbai or dealing with property there. Probate is no longer compulsory, but a transfer made years ago on an unproved will, or a will that any heir disputes, still needs careful reading; our page on the Indian Succession Act has the background. A pending suit carries its own risk: under Section 52 of the Transfer of Property Act, whoever buys during the case takes the property subject to its result.

What should a title search report contain?

A report you can rely on has the parts below. If yours is two paragraphs saying the title is "clear", ask for the rest.

• The property exactly as the records describe it: CTS or survey number, village, building, flat and area.
• A list of the documents examined, originals or copies, with dates and registration numbers.
• The flow of title, step by step, from the earliest document to the seller.
• The results for each year and office searched, including anything the seller did not disclose.
• Mortgages, charges, notices, court cases and reservations found, or a statement that none were.
• Requisitions: the documents or steps the seller must supply before completion.
• The opinion: clear and marketable, clear subject to stated conditions, or not clear.

An opinion is only as good as its conditions. "Clear subject to the release deed of the second heir" means you do not pay the balance until that deed is registered.

What can a title search not tell you?

A search reads records, and some risks never reach a record. The agreement has to deal with those:

• Unregistered family arrangements, oral partitions and agreements nobody filed.
• A forged deed or an impersonated seller that looks genuine on paper.
• Physical facts: encroachment, the real boundary, or a floor built beyond the sanctioned plan, which need a site visit or a survey.
• Heirs nobody has mentioned.

Three things narrow the gap: the public notice inviting objections, the seller's written declarations about ownership, heirs and loans, and an indemnity that survives completion. A loan sanction does not close it either, because the bank checks only what it needs to protect its own security.

Who needs a title search the most?

Every buyer benefits, but the risk is higher in some deals:

• Resale flats in older societies, where the agreements go back decades and originals go missing.
• Inherited property, where heirs are spread across cities and countries.
• Plots, bungalows and land, where revenue records and mutation entries carry most of the history.
• Property sold through a power of attorney, where the PoA needs checking as closely as the title.
• Buildings in or close to redevelopment.

Buyers living abroad need it more, because they cannot see the property or meet the society themselves. Our NRI property services page explains how that is handled from a distance.

What to do next

1. Collect copies. Ask the seller for every document in the chain, the society papers and the latest tax and maintenance receipts.
2. Send them to an advocate before you pay a token you cannot recover.
3. Let the searches and public notice run, then read the report with the advocate.
4. Write the conditions into the agreement. Every requisition in the report should become a term.
5. Pay the balance at completion, once the conditions are met and the originals are handed over.

Our property title search service covers the searches and the written report. If you also need the agreement drafted, the agreement to sale with title search report is from Rs 18,000. For property outside Mumbai and Navi Mumbai, we tell you at the first consultation which records can be searched remotely and how the rest will be covered.