Buying a builder floor in Delhi: the fourteen checks that actually matter

Start with the title, not the tiles

The most expensive mistake in a builder-floor purchase is falling for the finishing and skipping the chain of ownership. Ask for the mother deed, every subsequent conveyance, and the current registry.

In most established South and West Delhi colonies the land is freehold and the paperwork is straightforward. On converted leasehold plots, and in parts of Gurugram, conversion status varies plot to plot and needs confirming in writing before any token changes hands.

The four documents to ask for first

Before a second visit, not after an offer:

• The registered sale deed in the current owner's name.
• The sanctioned plan for the building.
• The completion certificate, or a written explanation of why there is not one.
• The latest property tax receipt and electricity bill, which quietly confirm the owner has actually been in possession.

A seller who can produce these in a day has looked after the property. One who needs three weeks usually has something to reconstruct.

Read the building against the plan

Compare the sanctioned plan with what stands. An enclosed balcony, extra rear coverage or an unapproved fourth floor are all common, and each affects both your loan and your exposure if the building is ever scrutinised.

A completion certificate, where one exists, is the strongest single signal that what was built matches what was approved.

The rights that are easy to assume and expensive to assume wrongly

Four things are routinely described verbally and left out of the deed:

• Undivided land share — the fraction of the plot you own, which decides your position at redevelopment.
• Parking — which bay, covered or open, and whether it is named anywhere.
• Terrace and roof — exclusive use, ownership and the right to build are three different rights.
• Separate electricity meter and independent entry, both of which sound obvious and are occasionally shared.

If it matters to you, it belongs in the deed. If a seller will not write it down, that is the answer.

The building you are joining

There is no association and no sinking fund. Whatever is wrong with the stairwell, the lift, the water tanks or the drainage becomes partly yours on the day you move in, and there is no committee to escalate it to.

Ask who has been paying for the common parts and how that gets decided. In a four-owner building the honest answer is often improvised, and it is much better to know that before you are one of the four.

The physical checks that take four minutes

• Water pressure at the highest tap in the property.
• Ceilings and bathroom-adjacent walls, for damp.
• Where the water comes from, and for how many hours.
• On a top floor, when the terrace was last waterproofed.
• The electrical distribution board, and whether the wiring has ever been redone.

Water and damp cause more regret on independent floors than anything except title.

What the money actually looks like

The price is not the cost. Budget for stamp duty and registration at your state's rate for your buyer profile, legal due diligence from around ₹25,000, brokerage where it applies at roughly 1%, mutation after registration, and renovation — which on a floor described as needing work runs to about ₹1,200 per square foot.

Every floor on this site carries an acquisition-cost estimate that adds these up for your state and profile. Treat it as a budgeting tool, not a quotation, and confirm the duty with the revenue department before you commit funds.

The one thing to do that almost nobody does

Engage a property lawyer before you pay a token, not after. A title opinion costs a fraction of a per cent of the purchase and is the only thing in the entire process that actually verifies you are buying what you think you are.

Everything else on this list — including everything we check and publish — narrows the risk. Only that removes it.