How to register a Property, Flat, Land in Kolkata, West Bengal

Registration of a property is a crucial and vital step when somebody is in the process of acquiring a property or flat as that establishes ownership rights on the property so acquired.

What is registration

Registration is a legal process through which we give effect to a transaction related to a property or flat or land when there is change in ownership. How does the ownership change? It does change either through sale or gift or auction or transfer of property or flat due to any court order or succession. A person might alienate his immovable property for want of money or to gift it to someone out of love and affection. Whenever there is a change in ownership then that ownership change is reflected in a particular kind of document which can be either a Sale Deed or a Gift Deed or Sale Certificate or Relinquishment Deed or Lease Deed. In case of lease deed the ownership does not get transferred but just the right to use the property. As and when such kind of legal documents are created, it is pertinent that such documents are authenticated under a seal of a government representative and authority. The legal process of getting these kinds of documents authenticated and ratified by the government appointed Registrars after paying the due stamp duty to the government is called “Registration”. 

Registration of the above-mentioned documents or any other document which needs to be registered is regulated by the Registration Act, 1908 which prescribes the rules and mechanism for effecting registration. 

Need for registration

Whenever there is transfer of a property, it is important that so-called transfer of the ownership of the said property should be recorded properly. Unless this process of recording the transfer is completed, in the eyes of law, it would not be sufficient to prove that the ownership has been transferred to the new owner. During the process of transfer of ownership, either through sale, gift or auction, a document or a deed is created and executed by the parties. This document must be registered with the sub registrar after getting the endorsement of the sub registrar. Once the document is endorsed and registered after paying the due stamp duty and registration charges, the transfer of ownership of a property or a flat is authenticated and recorded. Based on this registered document  the land records or the property records with the government can be modified, what in common parlance is called as Mutation. Unless there is a registered document Mutation, ideally, should not be affected.

Also, the Registration Act ,1908 prescribes and makes it mandatory that certain documents must be registered to make that document valid and legal.

What all should be registered

As per the Section 17 of the Registration Act, 1908 the following documents are mandatorily required to be registered:

• Gift Deed of Immovable Property
• Any non-testamentary document which property value more than Rs. 100/-
• Lease Deed for more than1 year lease period

Section 18 of the same Act provides that registration of some of the documents like a WILL is optional.

Where to get the registration done in Kolkata 

The basic way of getting the registration of a property or flat or land is that it can be registered with the office of the Sub-Registrar under whose jurisdiction the property is located. Usually, the office of the Registrar is structured in this manner;

For people of West Bengal when they wish to go for registration of deeds related to any property then they can do so at any level. For example, let's assume that a property is situated in Newtown area of Kolkata then the person has the option to get the registration done at any of the below places/offices;

Option- A: With the Sub-Registrar at Rajarhat

Option- B: With the Additional/ District Sub-Registrar at Barasat

Option- C: With the Registrar of Assurance at ARA Kolkata.

Documents Required for registration 

For registration of any kind of document or deed the following documents are required to be presented before the sub-registrar;

• Conveyance/Deed copy to be registered
• Copy of the previous deeds
• NOC from the bank (if there is loan on the property)
• NOC from the society/association
• Aadhar of both buyer and seller
• PAN of both buyer and seller
• Photographs of both buyer and seller
• Biometrics like fingerprints of both buyer and seller
• Floor plan of the flat

As we see the Government of West Bengal has eased the process of the registration by giving multiple options of offices where the registration of transfer of property can be done. One can get the conveyance deed of any kind registered in any office under the hierarchy of the Registrars by choosing a convenient location for oneself. People who are looking forward to register a power of attorney or gift deed or will can do so in their nearby sub-registrar office or district registrar office or even at ARA -Kolkata which is centrally located at Kolkata with ease of access from all parts of the city and state.