An encumbrance certificate is the first document we ask for and the one most buyers read least carefully. It records what has been registered against a property over a given period. It does not record everything that can threaten your ownership, and knowing that difference is what keeps a transaction safe.
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“An EC is a record of what was registered. It is not a guarantee of clean title, and no one at the sub-registrar ever said it was.”
Ask for a thirty-year search wherever the state allows it. A thirteen-year certificate is the market habit rather than a legal standard, and most of the disputes we have seen originate in transactions older than that: an unregistered partition, a mortgage released without a proper deed of reconveyance, or a sale by someone who had only a life interest in the property.
Three entries should always stop you: a mortgage with no corresponding release, a court attachment, and a gift or settlement deed inside the family that does not tally with the revenue records.
Remember what an EC cannot show you: unregistered agreements, oral partitions, tenancy claims, pending litigation that has not reached attachment, and tax or municipal dues. Those need separate searches, and we run them on every file before an advance is released.
If any of this is unclear on a property you are considering, send us the documents and we will read them with you before you pay an advance.
Posted by: Head, Property
The Holdings desk handles property sourcing, title verification, valuation and sale for The Corps Ventures and its clients across Delhi NCR. Questions on a specific property can be sent to support@thecorps.in.
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The Corps desk 12 August 2026
Availability varies by tehsil and by the period that has been digitised. Where a full search is not available online, a manual search through counsel usually is. Ask for it in writing before you pay an advance.
Reader question 04 August 2026
Does a clean EC mean I can skip the title opinion from an advocate?
The Corps desk 05 August 2026
No. The two do different jobs, and we would not close a transaction on an EC alone.
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Reader question 12 August 2026
We are buying a plot in Sohna and the seller has given a thirteen-year EC. He says a thirty-year search is not available for that tehsil. Is that correct?