For sale or purchase of any property it is necessary or essential, that the property must hold clear & marketable title i.e. the property is free from any rights and saleable, free from easement of others and encumbrances. Before purchase or any property, it is necessary to examine the documents of ownership in Govt. revenue records, to ascertain that whether the property has clear and marketable title i.e it is free from any encumbrances, rights or interest of any third party. Clear title mean the property has a clear title in name of the owner and no other person has any right, claim or encumbrances on it.
The purchaser has to search the title through his advocate in this matter before entering in to an agreement.
The advocate or his authorized officer inquires in the office of Talati, Tehasildar, City Survey Officer, Collector and from revenue records of Govt. for the last 30 / 60 years and collects the information about subsequent entries related to the ownership / transaction of the property.
The advocate than prepares the report on the entry or sequence of ownership changed from one owner to other owner up to date; along with all information of third party rights if any in report generally known as Search Report.
Public notice may be given in the local news paper based on this search report. After response of the public notice for not claiming any rights by other parties, examination of title deeds i.e original documents / sale deeds / any other documents are checked by the advocate in this regard. After getting satisfied that nobody has any claim or right for the property, he issues “The Title Clearance Certificate” stating that the property has clear and marketable title.
You have to be careful while giving Public Notice particularly in large cities. Cases are found that some land mafias and unscrupulous elements come up with fake and fabricated rights over the property just to blackmail the advertiser even if they don’t have any locus standi.
In general the title clearance certificate consists of following information:-
01. Name of present owner/ seller/ buyer and sequence of change of ownership and rights of third party if any, for last 30/60 years.
02. Description of property i.e. Plot No., Scheme No., Survey & Hissa No., Block No., City Survey No., Name of Village, Tehasil and District and area/ zone in which the property falls.
03. Area of property.
04. Important findings from search report.
05. Certification of title clearance and marketability of the property.
Buying a property with defective title will steal your happiness and will put you to lot of stresses due to legal disputes which may have an effect on your health.
