Rajeev Sondur, invested all his life savings when he booked his dream house in Mahaveer Desire on Hasergatta Road. The project had a BDA approved stamp whereas the builder a reputed name in the industry. But since 2014, residents of Mahaveer Desire have been running pillar to post as they learnt that the road leading to their project is under dispute.

Railway authorities claim that the land in front of the project compound is owned by Chikkabanavara Railway Station leaving these residents with no access road. Helpless residents have nowhere to go as BDA and builder have swiftly shifted the blame on each other. The railway officials have even threatened to barricade the area stumping the poor buyers with an unthinkable situation.

An unfortunate scenario like this could have been well averted only if the residents had done a more thorough due-dilligence before booking a flat. We have prepared a check-list of all the documents that need to be verified so that you never have to meet a similar fate.

1) Sale Deed or Mother Deed: A Sale Deed is a legal document which acts as proof of sale and show the transfer of ownership of the property. The Mother Deed helps trace the origin/antecedent ownership of the property

2) Building Approval Plan: This is issued by either the the BDA (Bangalore Development Authority) or BBMP (Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike) or BMRDA (Bangalore Metropolitan Region Development Authority) or BIAPPA (Bangalore International Airport Area Planning Authority) without which the construction of the building is illegal under the Karnataka Municipal Corporations (KMC) Act.

3) Commencement Certificate: This document is also issued by the local authorities (BDA/BBMP & alike) only after an inspection of the site is done.

4) Conversion Certificate: This is issued by the Department of Town and Country Planning who issues an NOC in case of change in land use from agricultural to non-agricultural purpose.

5) Khata Certificate and Khata Extract: A Khata Certificate is mandatorily required for the registration of a new property whereas Khata Extract is nothing but getting property details from the area sub-registrar. The BBMP issues 2 types of Khatas: A Khata which has properties listed under BBMP jurisdiction with legal property construction while B Khata are those registered under local jurisdictions and may have some deviations from the original sanction plan.

6) Completion Certificate: Will be issued to the builder only once all constructions on the site are complete. It also denotes that the builder has adhered to norms that of height, approach roads, distance for storm water drains, etc.

7) Occupancy Certificate: A final inspection is carried out by the competent authority before this certificate is issued. This is to ensure that the construction has met all the specified norms. Clearance certificates from various authorities like the fire departments, BWSSB, Pollution control Borad or Airport authority etc are also reviewed before handing out this clearance.

Reporter- Stacy Linera Pereira, NDTV