The property due diligence checklist for Mumbai buyers

Almost everything that goes wrong with a property purchase was visible before the cheque was written. Not hidden — visible, in a register that anyone can search, for a fee measured in hundreds of rupees.

The problem is not secrecy. It is that the checks live in six different places, none of them talk to each other, and the person encouraging you to hurry is usually the person paid when you do. This is the order we work in, and the order we would suggest you work in.

1. The title chain

A title document proves the seller can sell. A title chain proves every person before them could too. One broken link anywhere in that sequence, and what you are buying is a lawsuit with a flat attached.

Ask for the parent document — the deed by which the current owner acquired — and work backwards. For land in Maharashtra, the 7/12 extract and the property card show ownership and encumbrance notes. For a flat, you want the chain of conveyance, the society share certificate if it is a resale, and the development agreement if a builder is selling on land they did not originally own.

Conveyance deserves particular attention in Mumbai. A great many housing societies occupy buildings whose land was never formally conveyed to them. The flats trade anyway. It is not automatically fatal, but you should know before you buy, not after, because it affects redevelopment rights and your ability to sell cleanly later.

2. The encumbrance certificate

An encumbrance certificate lists the registered transactions against a property over a stated period — sales, mortgages, gifts, liens. It answers one question: is anyone else's claim already attached to this?

Two limitations worth understanding. It only captures registered instruments, so an unregistered arrangement will not appear. And it is only as good as the period you request; asking for the last five years on a building that changed hands in 1998 tells you very little. Ask for as long a period as the office will give you.

3. MahaRERA status and complaints

Under the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act 2016, projects above the statutory size threshold must register with the state authority before they are advertised or sold. In Maharashtra that authority is MahaRERA, and its portal is public and free.

The registration number tells you the project exists in the system. The project page tells you considerably more: the declared completion date, whether it has been revised, the sanctioned plan, and — the part almost nobody opens — complaints filed against the promoter.

We wrote a separate walkthrough of how to read those entries: how to check a project on MahaRERA.

4. The builder's actual record

Every builder's brochure describes a builder who delivers on time. The record is checkable independently:

• Past project delivery. Look up their earlier registered projects on the same portal and compare the original completion date with the revised ones. A pattern of extensions is a pattern, not bad luck.
• Litigation. Search the promoter entity name in court and tribunal records. Consumer forum matters are particularly informative because they are usually filed by buyers.
• Corporate filings. If the promoter is a company, its filings with the Registrar of Companies show charges created on assets, which is a reasonable proxy for financial strain.

None of these is disqualifying on its own. Together they tell you whether the delivery date in your agreement is a plan or a hope.

5. Carpet area versus what you are sold

RERA defines carpet area as the net usable floor area within the walls of the apartment, excluding the area covered by the external walls, areas under service shafts, exclusive balcony or verandah, and exclusive open terrace — but including the internal partition walls.

That definition matters because "super built-up" has no statutory definition at all. It is a marketing number. Two projects quoting the same super built-up area can differ materially in what you can actually furnish. Insist on the carpet area figure, in writing, and divide the total price by that when you compare options.

6. Whether the price is a real price

The asking price is an opinion. Registered sale prices are facts. Maharashtra's registration department records the consideration for every registered transaction, and the ready reckoner publishes government-assessed values by area.

Neither is a valuation on its own. The ready reckoner is a floor for stamp duty purposes, not a market rate, and registered values can be understated. But a quoted price sitting far above recent registered transactions for comparable flats in the same building or micro-market is a question worth asking out loud, before you are emotionally committed.

7. The agreement clauses that matter

Read the whole thing, but read these especially closely:

• The possession date, and what happens if it is missed — specifically whether compensation is defined and at what rate.
• Termination asymmetry. Compare what you forfeit if you walk against what the builder owes if they do.
• Escalation clauses permitting price increases for statutory changes or construction cost.
• Area variation. What happens if the delivered carpet area differs from the agreed figure, and in whose favour the tolerance runs.
• Dispute resolution. Where you would have to go, and whether that forum is convenient to you or to them.

The order matters more than the list

Most buyers do these checks — when they do them at all — after they have paid a token and fallen in love with a kitchen. At that point every finding gets rationalised, because the alternative is admitting the deposit was a mistake.

Done in the order above, the cheap checks come first. Title and RERA status take days and cost very little. If either comes back badly, you have saved yourself the rest.