Encumbrance Certificate Application

To, The Sub-Registrar [authority_name] Date: [application_date] Subject: Application for an Encumbrance Certificate Sir/Madam, 1. I, [applicant_name], residing at [applicant_address], request the issue of an Encumbrance Certificate in respect of the property described below. 2. PARTICULARS OF THE PROPERTY [property_details] 3. PERIOD OF SEARCH From [period_from] to [period_to]. 4. PURPOSE [purpose] 5. I request that the certificate disclose all registered transactions affecting the said property during the period stated, including sales, gifts, mortgages, leases, partitions, wills registered, attachments and court orders registered against it. 6. I enclose the prescribed fee and the documents listed below, and undertake to furnish any further particulars required. Yours faithfully, [applicant_name] [applicant_address] Contact: [contact_number] DOCUMENTS ENCLOSED 1. Copy of the title deed or previous sale deed, showing the survey number 2. Property tax receipt or khata extract 3. Identity and address proof of the applicant 4. Prescribed application fee ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── WHAT AN ENCUMBRANCE CERTIFICATE DOES NOT TELL YOU This is where property buyers are most often caught out. An EC is essential, but it is not a clean bill of health, and a "nil encumbrance" certificate is not proof that a property is safe to buy. An EC shows only what has been REGISTERED at that Sub-Registrar's office, for the period and the property description you asked for. It does NOT show: - UNREGISTERED transactions. An agreement to sell, an unregistered mortgage by deposit of title deeds, or an oral family arrangement will not appear. - PENDING LITIGATION. A suit over the property does not show on an EC unless a court order has been separately registered against it. - TAX AND UTILITY DUES. Municipal tax arrears, water and electricity dues, and society maintenance arrears do not appear. - TENANTS OR OCCUPANTS. Possession is not an EC matter. - GOVERNMENT ACQUISITION or planning restrictions. - Anything registered at a DIFFERENT office, or under a different survey number, or outside the period you searched. PRACTICAL POINTS: 1. Search a LONG period. Thirty years is the conventional due-diligence period; thirteen or fifteen years is common but shallower. A defect older than your search window is invisible. 2. Check the survey number carefully. An EC issued against the wrong survey number is worthless and looks identical to a good one. 3. Take the EC together with the title deeds, the khata or mutation record, current tax receipts, and a physical inspection of who is actually in possession. No single document establishes title. 4. On a purchase of any size, have an advocate do a full title search rather than relying on an EC alone.