Building Approvals, Occupancy/Completion Certificates & Zoning
Whether what stands on the ground was permitted, and whether it may be occupied and used as you intend.
A registered sale deed does not make an unauthorised floor legal. Planning permission, a commencement or building permit, and an occupancy or completion certificate answer different questions, and cities do not use the same names for them.
We compare the approval papers with the unit you are buying: the floor, the use, and the broad extent. We do not redraw the building. Where a measured survey is needed, we say so.
Laws and records vary by state. Khata, mutation, jamabandi, patta, and municipal extracts are not interchangeable, and the office that holds them changes with the city. The points below describe the work in general. The papers we ask for follow the property’s location, and the report names the source that was actually consulted.
What this covers
Sanctioned plan, and whether later revisions exist in the file
Commencement or building permission, by whatever name that city uses
Occupancy certificate and completion certificate, treated as related but not assumed to be the same paper
Visible deviations the file itself discloses, such as an extra floor or a change of use
Zoning or land-use remarks where they are part of the planning papers
Documents we typically need
Sanctioned plan and any revised plan
Building permit, commencement certificate, or the local equivalent
Occupancy certificate, completion certificate, and any partial-occupancy paper
The agreement plan attached to your draft sale deed
Society or association correspondence about unauthorised work, if any
What you receive
Which of these certificates are in the file, and which are only referred to
Whether the unit’s floor and use are within what the papers describe
Deviations that are disclosed, and deviations that cannot be judged without a site measure
The practical consequence we can see — for example, a bank that may decline a loan, or a demolition risk we cannot quantify from paper alone
Common red flags
Possession offered with no occupancy paper and no honest explanation
A plan that stops at a lower floor than the one you are buying
Commercial use of a unit sanctioned as residential, or the reverse
A “regularisation applied for” letter treated as if regularisation had been granted
Setbacks or common areas built over, recorded in the society’s own minutes
Questions on this check
Planning a property purchase? Get it verified first.
Tell us the city and what you are buying. We will reply with the papers to send and a quote for the scope.