Buyer's Due Diligence Pack and 30-Year Title Search Instruction (Punjab and Chandigarh Checklists)

स्टाम्प ड्यूटी

The letter, the advocate's acknowledgment, and the certificate of title carry no stamp duty — none is an instrument under section 2(14), Stamp Act, 1899; plain paper. Any affidavit sworn alongside (one-and-same-person, indemnity, a Chandigarh affidavit-cum-indemnity bond) is a separate, separately-stamped instrument — Punjab has no sourced affidavit denomination (ask the vendor); Chandigarh e-stamps through SHCIL's forms. What the TRANSACTION itself will cost, Punjab: a sale/gift draws 5% duty (Entry 23, Schedule I-A) PLUS three add-ons that survive any duty remission — 1% Social Infrastructure Cess, 1% PIDB fee, 0.25% Special Infrastructure Development Fee (together, budget 7.25%) — plus 1% registration fee (capped Rs 2,00,000), slab facilitation charges, and Rs 200 pasting. A FEMALE buyer gets a 2-percentage-point reduction on a conveyance only (not gift/lease/mortgage/POA) under a 2010 notification; a transfer to blood relations (children/grandchildren/siblings) is fully duty-exempt. Other instrument types (lease-rights transfer, GPA, mortgage, partition) carry their own separate Punjab rates — confirm at the Sub-Registrar. Chandigarh: a sale/gift/conveyance is 5% of value/consideration (verified live on the District Collector's own calculator — the 6% widely quoted online is wrong), registration 1% capped Rs 10,000, Rs 20 pasting; no gender concession exists. Lease-rights transfers, GPA, mortgages and partitions each carry their own separate Chandigarh rates. Duty in both places runs on the higher of price or the notified collector/circle rate — get the current schedule before budgeting, and note Rule 15, Chandigarh Estate Rules, 2007 puts the whole cost on the buyer.

रजिस्ट्री

The letter itself isn't registrable — section 17, Registration Act, 1908 doesn't reach an instruction to a professional. Sign two originals; email a scanned copy the same day to fix the instruction date. What IS registrable in the chain being investigated: a sale deed of property worth Rs 100+ (s.17(1)(b)) and a lease over one year (s.17(1)(d)) — unregistered, either is inadmissible to prove the transaction (s.49). Punjab-specific: section 7, Punjab Apartment and Property Regulation Act, 1995 requires a promoter's plot/apartment agreement to be registered too — an unregistered one in the chain is a defect to report, though it stays usable for specific performance (s.8). Punjab: registration triggers the Parcha Yadasht that starts mutation; report the acquisition within 3 months or risk a fine up to 5x the mutation fee (s.39, PLRA). CRITICALLY, the one-year pre-emption window (s.30, Punjab Pre-emption Act, 1913) starts from the EARLIER of mutation attestation or taking possession — until one happens, the clock hasn't even started, so don't let mutation drift after completion. Chandigarh: registration at the Sub-Registrar auto-triggers Estate Office mutation digitally since 2025, with no later filing to fix a defective affidavit pack — it must be right on the day. Where residential property falls outside the four categories the Estate Officer's 2023 notice still permits, change of ownership may be stopped regardless of a clean search.

नोटरी

Not required — the letter, the advocate's acknowledgment, and the certificate of title are unsworn professional documents. Where an attorney signs for the buyer, produce the power of attorney in original (registered, for buying property); anything executed abroad for a Chandigarh transaction needs embossing by the Finance Department first. The affidavits that travel WITH the purchase — a one-and-same-person affidavit, a seller's indemnity, a no-litigation declaration, or Chandigarh's affidavit-cum-indemnity bond — are separate sworn instruments, each on its own stamp paper, each deponent swearing separately (two sellers need two affidavits). Punjab: before a Notary or Oath Commissioner. Chandigarh: a notarised affidavit is accepted in place of Executive Magistrate attestation. A company/trust/firm buyer's authority document is typically notarised too. None of this makes a shown document genuine — only the certified copies and dated portal prints the advocate obtains from the record office do that.

गवाह

None on the letter itself — nobody is executing a transfer. The deed the search protects is different. Punjab: two witnesses appear in person before the Sub-Registrar (ss.32/34, Registration Act, 1908); neither party can witness for the other. Distinctively, a co-sharer who holds a right of pre-emption and ATTESTS the sale deed as a witness is held to have WAIVED that right — if a co-sharer could pre-empt, get them to attest rather than merely consent; it costs nothing and closes a year-long risk. Chandigarh: two witnesses, the FIRST qualifying under paragraph 127, Punjab Registration Manual (a Lambardar/Sarpanch/Panch in a village area, or a councillor, gazetted officer or advocate), both known to each other and the first known to the Sub-Registrar — bringing two unqualified neighbours means no valid first witness at all. Using your own advocate as that witness is convenient but weakens their independence if title later fails; consider a different advocate for it. Purchase affidavits are sworn, not witnessed — a notarial register entry is the record, not a witness line.