Whose home is it anyway?: The title deed is only one of the important things on your checklist

November, 1995. Sabita Bhattacharya, a housewife from Budge Budge, books a flat near Dum Dum Airport with a down payment of Rs 1,50,000. She gives a bearer?s check to the builder ? whom Bhattacharya has met only once at his makeshift office in the same building. He gives her a hand-written receipt which does not indicate the reason for the payment and tells her she may have her two-bedroom when she pays the remaining Rs 2,00,000.

April, 1996. When Bhattacharya and her husband land up at the apartment site with another instalment, they are told by the guard that the builder has shifted to an unknown location. To their horror, they also discover that a family has already moved into the apartment they had booked ? and, moreover, possesses all the legal documents to prove ownership.

December, 2004. After running from pillar to post to try and retrieve her money ? she went to a consumer court in Alipore as well as Barasat civil court ? Bhattacharya has now given up. ?I don?t have a single document on the basis of which to file a law suit,? she says. To make matters worse, the builder, emboldened by this lack of evidence, has made threatening phone calls to her, warning her of ?dire consequences? if she pursues the matter.

?Failure to secure the right legal documents before purchasing a flat can result in a lot of heartache for the consumer,? explains Arnab Ghosh, advocate, Calcutta High Court. ?In case of discrepancies, the lack of documentary evidence becomes a major obstacle in fighting for justice.?

Prabir Basu, acting president of Bengal Federation of Consumers? Organisations, agrees. ?The consumer courts receive ?? number of cases related to property-disputes, which range from illegal property transfers to a promoter?s not handing over a flat within a stipulated time period. It?s always more difficult if the consumer has no legal documents. This, as well as the fact that it is only after a buyer obtains all the mandatory legal documents that his ownership can really be called complete, make it necessary for him to acquire these.?

Basu urges those interested in buying property to follow a checklist:

Where?s the title deed?: This indicates in whose name the property belongs and is official proof of ownership, bearing the stamp of the district registration office. You should insist on seeing the original. It is the most important indication of whether or not the person selling you the property has the right to do so at all. Prabir Basu warns about a plethora of cases in consumer courts in which people have paid money to those who do not have the legal authority to make the transfer.

Have you an agreement?: If the landowner has bestowed upon a builder or promoter the authority to sell his property, there should be an official agreement to this effect, including a registered record of power of attorney.

Check the conveyance deed: Essentially, this is the document, signed on stamp paper, in which the landowner officially hands over the property to the buyer. Other than being the most crucial indication that the current landowner has agreed to transfer the property in your name, this document also delineates specific details about a particular piece of land. This includes cost, size (which is usually measured in units of square foot) and location (in a building, where, in which direction ? east, west, north or south ? your flat is located) among other details. You must ensure that there are no discrepancies between what is written in the agreement and what you get. At this stage, you ought to have a ?searching? done. This means getting an expert to see whether the measurements indicated in the agreement tally with the area of land you are buying. Says Prabir Basu, many disputes in court are about consumers not having got the area of land agreed upon in the agreement. Earlier, the practice was to sign the agreement on 10-rupee stamp paper, but since January 31, 1994, when the Amendment to the Stamp Act came into being, the agreement has to be made as per the value of the property.

You also need a sanctioned municipal plan: This is in order to determine if permission has been granted for construction and whether or not the builder has adhered to the terms and conditions.

Don?t forget the registration certificate: This is usually drawn up after the buyer gets possession of the flat.

And finally, an ownership certificate: This is handed over to the buyer on completion of the sales process.

Involve the law

• Helping hand: Both Prabir Basu and Arnab Ghosh suggest that you enlist the help of a lawyer who deals in property matters. The lawyer’s role includes finding out if there are pending court cases involving the land and “searching” the records of the local district state registration office covering the past 15 years to see whether the property is free from all legal encumbrances. “It is advisable to involve your property lawyer from the time of booking the flat so that he can scrutinise each document — including the title deed, conveyance deed and sanctioned municipal plan,” says Ghosh. Basu suggests that “property lawyers can better understand the financial aspects of the purchase — such as what actually the going rate is for a piece of land”.

• Shelling out: Cost of documents and other things:
Stamp duty – 8 per cent
Calcutta Metropolitan Development tax – 2 per cent
Registration fee: 1.1 per cent
Lawyer’s fee: 1-1.5 per cent