If more than eight months have passed since the execution of the property document, then the document cannot be registered. However, to safeguard and protect the interest of the purchaser from any claim by seller or his legal heirs in future, both the parties to the documents should prepare a deed of confirmation and the said document should be attached as an annexure to the said deed of confirmation.
Both the parties should register the deed of confirmation to which the original agreement has been annexed. Original document must have been fully stamped and penalty up to the date of registration or adjudication must have been paid.
In such a case it is the deed of confirmation, which is considered as registered and agreement annexed is not registered. However, in future the selling party will not be able to raise any objection to such a transfer on grounds of non-registration. Nowadays the department asks for full stamp duty on the confirmation deed also.
If the vendor dies after signing the document but before registration, in such unfortunate circumstances there are two options:
First, all the legal heirs of the deceased vendor should apply to court for probate/succession certificate and appeal to the court for passing and order granting one of the legal heirs right to admit execution in front of Sub-Registrar on behalf of the deceased vendor.
This option, although is the most correct option, but as observed, court procedures do sometime take very long time to complete and meanwhile the mandatory 4 months period under which the registration can be done passes away. Sometimes, the extended period of next 4 months also passes away till the time court gives its order.
Under the above circumstances, second best option is that the purchaser should get the document registered single sided and then make a deed of confirmation stating the fact of the circumstances. It should be signed by the purchaser and all the legal heirs of the vendor and this deed of confirmation along with copy of original single sided registered document attached to it as annexure should be registered.
This will prevent all the legal heirs, in future, from claiming any right in the property. However, the stamp duty liability will increase substantially as confirmation deed is involved.
For certified copies of document/ search report/ Index II, one must approach the concerned Sub-Registrar and make the required application at his office. In case the document/ search report/ Index II copy required relates to the period prior to 01-02-2002, then the same will be available within 7 days of making application. In case it is relating to the period after 01-02-2002, then the same will be available on the same day of making application between 5.00 pm to 5.30 pm.
(The writer is a valuer of real estate and co-author of Stamp Duty Ready Reckoner)
