An encumbrance certificate lists the registered transactions on a property. It is essential reading before you buy, but it is not a clean bill of title on its own.
Almost every property purchase in Karnataka begins with a request for an encumbrance certificate, usually shortened to EC. Banks ask for it before they lend, and buyers are told to insist on it. It is worth knowing exactly what the document records, because what it leaves out matters as much as what it contains.
What an encumbrance certificate is
An EC is an extract from the registers kept by the Sub-Registrar's office. For the property and the period you specify, it lists the documents that were registered against it: sale deeds, gift deeds, mortgages, releases, partition deeds and similar instruments. In Karnataka it can be obtained through the Kaveri online services of the Department of Stamps and Registration, or from the Sub-Registrar's office where the property is registered.
When transactions were registered during the period, the certificate lists them. When none were, it states that no encumbrances were found. People often call these Form 15 and Form 16 respectively.
How to read one
- Ask for a long enough period. Thirty years is the usual minimum for a title check, longer where the chain of ownership requires it.
- Match every entry to a document. Each sale, gift or mortgage on the EC should correspond to a deed you have seen in the title chain.
- Look for open mortgages. A loan registered against the property should be followed by a registered release or a bank closure letter.
- Check the description. Survey number, site number, extent and boundaries should match the deeds and the khata.
What an EC does not show
An EC only covers registered documents. It will not show an unregistered agreement to sell, a pending civil suit, a family member's claim under succession law, an attachment by a court or tax authority that was never registered, or a dispute recorded only in the revenue records. Those need their own checks: the RTC and mutation records, searches of court records, and questions put to the seller in writing.
A clean EC tells you nothing was registered against the property. It does not tell you nothing is wrong with it.
In practice
Treat the EC as one part of a title check, read together with the mother deed and every link in the chain since, the khata and tax receipts, the revenue records and, for apartments, the approved plan and occupancy certificate. Order a fresh EC close to registration as well, so nothing registered in the meantime is missed.