Metropolitan cities like Mumbai and Bangalore, are becoming increasingly crowded in India, with more and more people moving to such cities in search of employment opportunities and a better lifestyle, living standard, etc. As a distant result of such a kind of urbanization and migration in cities like Bangalore, it is the property lawyers in Bangalore whose businesses are flourishing to a great extent.
Owning or for that matter, possession of a property is a privilege in a developing country like India. Those who have the luxury of owning the property must not undermine the importance of it and hence take all the essential steps in order to ensure that their right is a nit, in any way, with conflict with the laws established in India for the purposes of regulation of property ownership. One of such laws is that which relates to property registration. The process of registration of the property is certainly a procedure that must not be neglected by any party, whether selling or buying, or whether leasing or the lessee, etc.
Therefore, this blog seeks to help our readers get acquainted with the seemingly cumbersome process of property registration.
If the procedure given below is followed in a systematic manner, it is unlikely for any person to face any hassle thereafter. The process seems more cumbersome than it actually is and more than the time that is required, it is the various kinds of fees and stamp duties that are mind-boggling.
One of the first steps that a person seeking to register his property-related rights is to determine what is the nature of right that he possesses. For example, whether he is the buyer, lessee, mortgagor or has access to the property in some other capacity. If it is a buyer, the person must also see if the property is being purchased first hand directly from the developer or the builder or, in the alternative, is it being purchased second hand from a previous owner. The processes of registration in the two scenarios vary.
The next step is to finalize the documents, like the sale deed, or the lease deed as the case may be. The parties may need the assistance of a Property lawyer for the purpose of foolproof drafting of such deed because the deed shall act as a contract between the two parties and any dispute arising in future between the two parties respecting their rights and liabilities will first be tried to be decided in light of the context of the deed.
The Property lawyer may charge a fee of 1% of the value of the property for this purpose. The deed is made on legal-sized ledger paper.
Post the finalization of the documents, the parties need to pay the requisite amount of stamp fee. The amount of stamp fee payable may vary from state to state but usually, it is about 5% of the value of the transaction involving the property. The value of the transaction must be cross-checked once in accordance with the circle rates and market rates prevalent for that property for that particular time. The District Collector of every district in India, on a regular basis, issues a ready reckoner for the determination of prices of property in his district, and such rates are called the circle rates. The stamp duty is payable, either on the actual value of the transaction or on the circle rate, whichever is higher.
The parties must then approach the Sub-registrar in whose local territorial jurisdiction the property falls, for the purpose of registering the transaction. The applicable registration fee must be payable and the application must be accompanied with the transaction deed, duly verified by two witnesses, the parties and the witnesses must also accompany, along with two passport-sized photographs, a phot-identity card, their PAN cards, etc. The application for a mutation (request for a change in name of the owner in the records of the revenue department) must also be made, accompanies with the affidavit, and notary.
Contrary the popular belief, the entire process, after finalization of the documents, takes less than even one day. However, the importance of registration cannot be over-emphasized because this needs to be done for the purpose of taxation. Post the change in the records of the concerned authority, the new owner shall be liable to pay all the property taxes applicable on that property. If the new buyer is a corporation, the Partnership Deed or the Memorandum and Article of Association for a company, as the case may be will also be required in the above-mentioned list of documents.
It is only after such registration is done, will the new purchaser be identified as the legal owner of the property in the eyes of law.
