Litigation & Drafting
Property Lawyer
Most property disputes are created at the drafting table and litigated years later. The cheapest point at which to deal with a title problem is before the money moves.
The ground
What you are actually dealing with
What a title search actually establishes?
A search traces ownership through the chain of registered documents, usually over thirty years, and checks the revenue records, mutation entries, encumbrance certificate, approved plans and any subsisting mortgage, lease, lis pendens or attachment. What it produces is not a guarantee of title but a documented view of who owns what, subject to what, and where the gaps are.
Registration and stamp duty are not paperwork
Under the Registration Act, 1908 an instrument transferring immovable property above a hundred rupees in value must be registered, and an unregistered document cannot be received as evidence of the transaction. Stamp duty is payable on the instrument at the rate for the state, and an instrument that is insufficiently stamped is inadmissible until the duty and penalty are paid. Neither is a formality that can be tidied up later without cost.
Possession, mutation and ownership are three different things
A sale deed transfers ownership. Mutation updates the revenue record so that taxes and utilities follow the new owner, and it is evidence of possession rather than proof of title. Possession without a registered document, and a registered document without mutation, both create the kind of ambiguity that later becomes a suit.
Our part
How we handle property work
The work is documentary. A transaction is only as good as the search behind it and the deed that records it, and both are done here rather than delegated to a form.
- 01
Title traced through the chain of documents, with the gaps stated plainly rather than glossed.
- 02
Deeds drafted for the transaction that is actually happening, including what happens if it does not complete.
- 03
Stamp duty and registration handled correctly at the time, not corrected afterwards.
- 04
Litigation risk assessed before purchase, which is the only point at which it is cheap.
Scope
What this engagement covers
- Title search, due diligence and search reports
- Sale, gift, mortgage, lease and licence deeds
- Agreements to sell, development and joint-venture agreements
- Stamp duty advice and registration
- Mutation, revenue record correction and encumbrance
- Partition, family settlement and succession of property
How it runs
The process, stage by stage
No stage carries a promised date. The Registry's queue and the court's list are not ours to commit on your behalf. What we commit to is doing our part of each stage without delay.
- 01
Search
The chain of title, revenue records, encumbrances and approvals are examined and a written report prepared.
- 02
Advise
The defects, if any, are identified with a view on whether they are curable and what the buyer is actually taking on.
- 03
Draft
The agreement and the deed are drafted for the transaction as it is, including the terms that matter if it goes wrong.
- 04
Execute and register
Stamp duty computed, the instrument executed and registered before the appropriate authority.
- 05
Complete the record
Mutation and record correction pursued so the revenue entries match the deed.
Where you are
Property services in detail
Each of these is a page of its own, because the answer changes with where you are filing and what you are filing about.
Common questions
Questions we are asked most often
Not worthless, but it cannot be received as evidence of the transfer, which is close to the same thing when it matters. A transfer of immovable property must be registered to be effective against third parties.
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