How Do You Verify a Plot’s Title Before Buying?
- Verifying a plot is not one search. It is six documents, pulled in a fixed order, because each one tells you which question to ask next.
- Start with the record of rights, which section 148 of the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code, 1966 requires to be maintained in every village. It tells you what the land legally is today.
- Then pull the holder’s account register, not just the parcel record. The parcel record will not tell you the seller holds ten other plots in the same village.
- The mutation register under section 150 is where a change of holder is written down before it reaches the 7/12. An entry sitting there uncertified is the gap most buyers pay into.
- Checked on the state portal on 23 September 2026: the free copy carries an explicit disclaimer that it cannot be used for any governmental or legal purpose. It is a lead, not evidence.
- A RERA registration number is a claim until you have read the project page it belongs to. Registration covers a project; it does not certify a title.
Land title verification is not a single search you demand from a seller. It is a process: six documents pulled in a fixed order, each one deciding which question you ask next as you trace ownership and clear whatever is unresolved behind the entry.
That is backwards. The documents arrive in the order that suits the seller, and the one that would have stopped the deal is the one that does not arrive at all. The order below is the order we use before we buy a parcel ourselves, and it is built so that each document tells you what to demand next. For the plain checklist of documents to demand from a seller, see our land-title checklist.
Terms used on this page
Satbara is the 7/12 extract: the village record of rights for one parcel.
Khatedar is the person recorded as holding the land.
Khata is that holder’s account number in the village.
Mutation is the entry that records a change of holder in the record of rights.
Ferfar is that mutation entry itself, numbered and kept in sequence for the village.
Gat number is the group survey number given to a holding after consolidation.
NA is non-agricultural: the order that converts land use from farming so it can be built on.
What does title verification actually mean?
Verifying title is a fixed process, not a demand: you establish what the land legally is today, then who legally holds it, and then whether anything unresolved is running behind that.
The record of rights that section 148 of the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code, 1966 requires in every village answers the first two. The third is the one that costs people money, and it sits in a different register.
A clean-looking extract is not the same as a clean parcel. The extract shows the current state of the record. It does not show the argument that produced that state, and it does not show an entry that has been made but not yet decided. Those live in the mutation register, and you have to go and look.
This is why the order matters. Reading the parcel record first and stopping there is how a buyer ends up owning a dispute.
What do you pull, and in what order?
Six documents, and the sequence is not arbitrary: each one narrows what you need from the next.
Fix the geography first, establish what the land is, then who holds it, then what is unresolved, then what has been permitted, and only then what the seller is claiming under section 150 of the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code, 1966.
- Fix the village before anything else. District, taluka and village are mandatory fields on the state portal before it will accept a survey number or a name. If you have only a seller’s name and a rough location, you cannot begin. Get the village from the agreement, a tax receipt or the previous deed.
- Pull the 7/12 for the parcel. Read the land-use entry before the owner column. A parcel still recorded as agricultural is agricultural, whatever has been built or sanctioned nearby, and that single line governs what you can legally do with it.
- Pull the 8A for the holder. The 7/12 is indexed by parcel; the 8A is indexed by the person. It lists every survey number standing to that khatedar’s account in the village. This is what shows you the seller is selling the accessible strip and keeping the landlocked remainder.
- Read the other rights column, then the mutation register. Charges, tenancies, pending entries and disputed notes live in that column, and each carries a mutation number. Take the number to the Talathi and ask for the file: the notice that was issued, who objected, and the order that certified or rejected it.
- Get the NA order itself, not a reference to it. A seller describing land as NA is not the same as an order converting it, and an order that has not been reflected on the record of rights is incomplete. Read the order and check it against the 7/12.
- Verify the RERA registration on the authority’s own portal. A registration number on a brochure is a claim. Look it up, read the project page, and confirm the survey numbers listed there are the ones you are being sold.
| Document | Answers | Will not tell you |
|---|---|---|
| 7/12 extract | What the land legally is, and who is recorded on this parcel | What else the seller holds, or what is unresolved behind the entry |
| 8A extract | Every parcel standing to that holder’s account in the village | Charges or crop position on any one parcel |
| Mutation file | Whether an entry was notified, objected to, and certified | Anything about parcels outside that entry |
| NA order | That the use was lawfully converted, and on what conditions | Whether the conversion is reflected on the record of rights |
| RERA project page | That the project is registered, and which survey numbers it covers | Whether the title to those survey numbers is clean |
Why is the free online extract not enough?
Because the record of rights it draws on is maintained under section 148 of the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code, 1966, not issued as evidence of title.
Checked on 23 September 2026, the free view states that the information cannot be used for any governmental or legal purpose. For a lender or a sub-registrar you need the signed extract.
Three other things about that portal are worth knowing before you waste an afternoon on it. It is in Marathi only, by its own notice, so names have to be read in Devanagari and spelled the way the record spells them rather than the way the seller spells them in English. A mobile number and a captcha are compulsory on every single query, so a chain of five villages is five manual searches. And the district list runs to thirty-five entries against thirty-six internal codes, because Mumbai City has no 7/12 at all and sits on Property Cards instead.
None of that is documented anywhere a buyer would normally look. It is simply what the portal does.
We have walked away from parcels that looked clean on every document the seller supplied. What stopped the deal was always something we pulled ourselves, in an order the seller did not choose.
Girish Chhalwani, Co-Founder, Lords of the Lands
What does RERA registration actually certify?
It certifies that a project has been registered with the authority, and the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 requires that registration before a promoter advertises or sells.
It does not certify that the title is clean, and it is not a substitute for reading the record of rights.
What registration does give you is a page on the authority’s own portal, and that page is the point. It lists the promoter, the land details and the declared timeline. Compare the survey numbers on it against the 7/12 you pulled. Where they do not match, you are being sold something adjacent to the registered project rather than the project itself, and that is a conversation to have before any money moves.
A plotted development is caught by the same requirement once it crosses the statutory thresholds. If a seller tells you a plotted layout does not need registration, ask which threshold they are relying on and check it.
What should stop a deal outright?
Four findings, and none is a negotiating position once the register under section 150 of the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code, 1966 is read.
Government, forest or common land. A tenure restriction with no sanction. A pending mutation recording someone else acquiring an interest. Or a RERA survey number that does not match.
Everything else is a question rather than a stop. A charge can be cleared before completion, a co-holder can be brought to the table, and an area discrepancy can be resolved by measurement.
What separates the two lists is simple. Either the defect can be cured by the seller doing something, or the land is not theirs to sell.
The honest position is that this sequence is a filter, not a guarantee. It is very good at telling you what to investigate next, and at telling you when to stop — which on a land purchase is most of the value.
Frequently asked questions
Can I verify a plot without visiting the Talathi office?
Partly. You can pull the parcel record and the holder’s account online, which is enough to decide whether to continue. The mutation file itself — the notice, the objections and the order — is held at the office, and that is the part that settles whether an entry is actually clean.
Does a RERA number mean the title is clear?
No. Registration means the project is registered with the authority before being advertised or sold. Title comes from the chain of registered documents and the record of rights, and RERA registration does not examine or certify it.
What is the single most missed check?
The holder’s account register. Buyers pull the parcel record and stop, so they never see the other parcels the seller holds in the same village, or the co-holders who appear against some and not others.
Is the free extract from the state portal legally usable?
No. The portal carries an explicit disclaimer that the information shown cannot be used for any governmental or legal purpose. A lender or a sub-registrar will ask for the digitally signed version.
How long should verification take before booking?
The online records take an afternoon once you know the village. The mutation file and the NA order depend on the office and typically take a few working days. Anyone pressing you to book before that is finished is telling you something.
What if the area on the record does not match what I was shown?
Treat it as a question to settle before payment, not after. A discrepancy of more than a guntha or so between the record and the quoted area needs a measurement and an explanation, and sub-division areas are confused with whole survey number areas constantly.
Looking at a plot in the Karjat or Khopoli belt? Lords of the Lands runs this sequence on every parcel before we acquire it, and we will run it on one you are considering.
Related reading
Reading the records
- How to read a 7/12 extract – the parcel record, line by line.
- The Other Rights column on the 7/12 – where charges and disputes sit.
- The property card and the 8A – the holder’s account.
- Mutation entries and ferfar – the uncertified-entry gap.
- How to check a plot’s NA status – confirming conversion on the record.
NA status and tenure
- What NA land actually means – the status you are buying into.
- NA plot vs agricultural land – the land-use line.
- The one-time NA premium – what conversion costs.
- Is an NA Sanad still required? – the 2026 position.
- Class 1 vs Class 2 tenure – which land transfers freely.
- Deemed NA on plan approval – when conversion is automatic.
The buying process and RERA
- What a RERA-approved plot proves – and what it does not.
- Verifying a plotted layout’s RERA – matching plot to project.
- Checking a MahaRERA number and its QPR – reading the portal.
- Right of way and plot access – the recorded-access test.
- How a land sale is registered – the step that transfers ownership.
- Getting building permission for a plot – the approval to build.
Shortlisting and risk
- The nine criteria we shortlist a plot against – the filter that precedes title work.
- The real risks in an emerging corridor – and the check that retires each.
- Non-agricultural status, and what it lets you build – the product itself.
- Khopoli-Pali road land: the SH-93 guide – a corridor where these checks apply.
Further reading
- Mumbai 3.0: the next chapter of India’s urban evolution
- Why investors are watching Karjat, Khopoli and Upper Alibaug
- Decoding land: how a parcel is assessed before we buy it
- Ongoing projects in the Karjat and Khopoli belt
- The types of plotted development we build
- Talk to Lords of the Lands about a parcel
Citations and sources
- MahaBhulekh v2.0, Maharashtra Bhumi Abhilekh — the four record types, the mandatory district, taluka and village fields, the Marathi-only notice and the disclaimer, all read off the live portal on 23 September 2026.
- MahaRERA — the authority’s own project search, where a registration number resolves to a project page.
- Maharashtra Land Revenue Code, 1966 — sections 148 and 150, the record of rights and the register of mutations.
