Introduction
The Encumbrance Certificate or EC is one of the most important documents in real estate. If you are just entering the world of real estate, then quickly understanding the EC will help you while buying, selling, or investing in land or property.
In this post, we will see:
- Definition of Encumbrance Certificate
- Different Encumbrance Certificates in Telangana
- Step-by-Step Guide to Download Encumbrance Certificate in Telangana
- How to Read an Encumbrance Certificate
- Uses of Encumbrance Certificate
- What is not available in EC?
Definition of Encumbrance Certificate (EC)
The Encumbrance Certificate in Telangana tells you if there are any 'encumbrances' on the given property. 'Encumbrance' here means any outstanding loans, claims, or faulty registration on the property.
On the Encumbrance Certificate, you will find a history of all transactions that have been recorded with the state government, for that given property.
For all ECs that you download from online sources, the history goes back only to 1983. This is because the land/property records for Telangana before 1983 have not yet been digitized. For transactions before 1983, you will have to make a physical visit to the concerned sub-registrar office.
Different Encumbrance Certificates in Telangana
In Telangana, the Encumbrance Certificate is of 2 types: agricultural lands and urban lands.
For urban lands, all the Encumbrance Certificates are generated by the Registration & Stamps Department (IGRS). ECs can be downloaded from their official portal: https://registration.telangana.gov.in/
For agricultural lands, with registrations before 2020, Encumbrance Certificates can be generated from IGRS also. For registration after 2020, the records can also be with the revenue department (not the registration department). These records are available on the Dharani portal: https://dharani.telangana.gov.in/
Since there are bound to be transactions before and after 2020 on most lands, it is best to check both portals for Encumbrance Certificates to get the full picture.
Also, agricultural land is only a classification. Some of the most popular urban areas in Telangana, such as Nanakramguda, Gachibowli, and Madhapur were earlier agricultural and hence have their records in the revenue department.
If you don't want to spend time on multiple portals, download the Landeed app for Telangana Encumbrance Certificates. Landeed is the fastest and only app that combines data from all sources and produces it in 1 place.
Downloading an Encumbrance Certificate in Telangana (Step-by-Step Guide)
Download Encumbrance Certificate (EC) using Survey No.
- Download the Landeed App: India's Fastest Online Document Search
- Choose Telangana State > Encumbrance Certificate
- Choose Survey No.
- Start typing your Village and Division and choose from one of the options. Example: Gachibowli, Srilingampalle, Rangareddy
- Enter your Survey Number. Example: 1
- By default, the transactions are from the starting date: 1 Jan 2000 to the current date. You can adjust this as you wish.
- Click Search
- Click Full EC to download
Download Encumbrance Certificate (EC) using Map location
- Download the Landeed App: India's Fastest Online Document Search
- Choose Telangana State > Encumbrance Certificate
- Choose Location
- Type the address like in Google Maps, or simply place the pin where you want to. Example: Nanakramguda
- Click Search
- Click Full EC to download
Download Encumbrance Certificate (EC) using Document No.
- Download the Landeed App: India's Fastest Online Document Search
- Choose Telangana State > Encumbrance Certificate
- Choose Document No.
- Choose your Sub-Registrar Office
- Type the Document Number. This is usually a 4-digit number. You can read more about documents here: Understanding Sale Deed in Telangana
- Type the Registration Year. Example: 2020
- Click Search
- Click Full EC to download
Download Encumbrance Certificate (EC) using House/Door No.
- Download the Landeed App: India's Fastest Online Document Search
- Choose Telangana State > Encumbrance Certificate
- Choose House/Door No.
- Start typing your Village and Division and choose from one of the options. Example: Gachibowli, Srilingampalle, Rangareddy
- Enter your House/Door-No. Example: 1-30
- By default, the transactions are from the starting date: 1 Jan 2000 to the current date. You can adjust this as you wish.
- Click Search
- Click Full EC to download
Download Encumbrance Certificate (EC) using Plot No.
- Download the Landeed App: India's Fastest Online Document Search
- Choose Telangana State > Encumbrance Certificate
- Choose Plot No.
- Start typing your Village and Division and choose from one of the options. Example: Gachibowli, Srilingampalle, Rangareddy
- Enter your Plot Number. Example: 26
- By default, the transactions are from the starting date: 1 Jan 2000 to the current date. You can adjust this as you wish.
- Click Search
- Click Full EC to download
How to read an Encumbrance Certificate
All Encumbrance Certificates (ECs) have 5 columns:
Description of Property:
Here you can find information like
- Plot No. of the Property
- Survey No. of the Property
- Extent or Area of the Property
- Boundaries of the property: a small description of properties in each direction (North, South, East and West)
- Village/Colony of the property
Here you will also find the Link Document number. This is the document that links the current transaction to a previous transaction.
Registration, Execution and Presentation Date
- Registration refers to the process of getting the document signed by the Sub-Registrar, and getting it entered in the official database.
- Execution refers to the date on which the transaction was put into effect. It is the date mentioned on the Sale Deed.
- Presentation refers to the date on which this transaction was presented to the Sub-Registrar.
Usually, the Registration, Execution, and Presentation are on the same date.
Nature of Deed, Market Value, Consideration Value
Nature of Deed tells you what kind of transaction it is. Some possible types of deeds:
- Sale Deed: used when there's a direct sale of the property. For more details, check out the blog here: Understanding Sale Deed in Telangana .
- Lease Deed: used when the property is being leased
- Deposit of Title Deed/Mortgage Deed: used when the property is being kept as collateral for financial purposes.
- Gift Deed: used when the property is being gifted from 1 party to another. It is often used at the time of succession from one generation to another generation in the family.
- Release Deed: used when the claims to a property are being released. This is used in times of succession as well as in mortgages.
- Market Value is the price of the property, decided by the government. When calculating stamp duty at the time of property registration, the market value is taken into account for all calculations.
- Consideration Value is the price of the property actually paid by the buyer at the time of property purchase.
Name of Parties Executant (EX) & Claimants (CL)
In this section, we can find the names of all the parties involved in the transaction. Those who are Claimants (CL) are receiving the property. The Executatnats (Ex) are those who are giving or selling the properties.
There are other short forms that can be found here, such as: (MR), (ME), (LR), (LE), (RR), (RE), and more. You can read the meaning of each term here: Encumbrance Certificate: Understanding the common terms in Telangana
Document No./Year
In this section, we find the document number details which has recorded the current transaction.
Nil EC
A Nil EC is generated when no transactions for the given property can be found. You will get a Nil EC in the following cases:
- There are no property transactions: for example if the property is ancestral property and has been passed down via succession. Many successions happen using a will and registration isn't required. In this case, the EC will have no transactions on it
- All property transactions are before 1983: As mentioned, in Telangana only documents on and after 1983 have been digitized. If transactions on the property have been made before 1983, they won't show on the digitally downloaded EC.
- Wrong Search Parameters: Many times you will get a Nil EC if the address entered is invalid. For example, if you enter a Plot No. which doesn't exist in a particular Plot No., it will give a Nil EC.
If you get a Nil EC, always check if there are any issues like old transactions or wrong addresses, before assuming that the property has no transactions.
Uses of Encumbrance Certificate
Encumbrance Certificates (ECs) are used in the following cases:
- Selling a Property: As part of the legal verification of the property, lawyers will ask for an Encumbrance Certificate of the given property. Using the EC, and the Deeds mentioned in the EC, lawyers check whether there are any issues in the land's chain of transaction. Even if 1 transaction in the entire history is problematic, then the buyer of the property has to be cautious because it could cause legal issues later on. ECs are the first step to knowing if the property has a free title or not.
- Home Loans: When opting for home loans, applicants have to provide an Encumbrance Certificate to the banks to show that the title of the property is clear. If the property already has some outstanding loans against it or other disputes, banks will not offer home loans for it.
- Market Research: Expert Brokers and Investors carefully go through the ECs of different areas to find out the current prices, find potential buyers and sellers, and for other market signals.
What is not available in the EC?
While ECs contain a lot of information, they don't offer the full picture.
Agricultural Land Information: ECs don't have much information on agricultural lands. Agricultural land records are usually maintained with Mandal's Revenue Office (MRO), and those details are not reflected on ECs. Recently (since 2020), even agricultural land records have started reflecting in ECs. However, transactions before 2020 are not present on ECs for agricultural lands.
Litigation Information: ECs also don't have any information on any ongoing legal liabilities on the property. This detail is available on judicial websites.
Prohibited Lands: In many areas, certain properties are prohibited from being built upon due to land-use restrictions, agricultural restrictions, or other cases. ECs don't have any information on the prohibited properties status. Recently, for agricultural lands, ECs have started showing prohibited land status.
Stamp Duty and Registration Fees: The stamp duty and registration fees are not mentioned in the telangana encumbrance certificate. Stamp duty changes regularly, and has to be calculated at the time of registration.
Conclusion
Encumbrance Certificates in Telangana are the entry point in knowing more about the property. There are 2 kinds of Encumbrance Certificates: Urban and Agricultural. Since some lands can fall under both categories, it’s better to download both ECs.
ECs include important information like the name of the parties, survey no. of the property, a list of all transactions, and the deed number.
Landeed is India’s Fastest Online Document Search for any property documents. You can get documents across 20+ states in India. Landeed is used by more than 10 lakh Indians to secure their property documents online.
For Telangana documents, use the Landeed app to download Telagana EC (Encumbrance Certificate) online, order a Certified Copy of the Sale Deed, get Market Value, and List of Prohibited Lands, and download the Pattadhar Passbook.
