How to transfer property after the owner dies

Find the sale deed or conveyance deed, any earlier deeds in the chain, the latest property tax receipts, the encumbrance certificate, the approved plan, and — for a flat — the society share certificate and allotment letter.

If deeds are missing, certified copies can be obtained from the sub-registrar's office where the property was registered. That takes time, so start it early rather than discovering the gap later.

Check for a home loan. A property under mortgage cannot be transferred cleanly until the lender is dealt with. Ask the lender in writing whether the loan carried insurance that repays the balance on the borrower's death — many do, it is almost never volunteered, and families routinely pay off a loan that was already covered.

With a will, the property devolves as the will provides, and the executor acts. Depending on where the property is and what the will covers, probate may be needed before institutions act on it — a question for a lawyer rather than a guess.

Without a will, succession law decides. Who inherits and in what share is fixed by the law applying to the deceased's religion, not by who lives in the house or who cared for the parent. This is where families discover that a sibling abroad has a share nobody intended.

Where several heirs inherit jointly and one is to keep the property, the others give a release or relinquishment deed, which is itself a registered document with stamp duty. Agreeing this in writing early is far cheaper than litigating it later.

Mutation — called khata transfer, dakhil kharij or record-of-rights updation depending on the state — records the new holder in the government's books and is what property tax is then billed against. Apply at the municipal corporation, panchayat or tehsil office holding the record.

Expect to file the death certificate, the title deed, the latest tax receipt, the succession document (will with probate, or legal heir/succession certificate), an affidavit, and an indemnity. Some states require a newspaper notice inviting objections.

Mutation is administrative, not adjudicatory: it does not decide a dispute and does not confer title. Do not treat a mutation certificate as proof of ownership.

For a flat, apply to the co-operative housing society to transfer the share certificate and membership. Societies have their own forms and typically want the death certificate, the nomination on record or succession documents, an indemnity, a transfer fee and no-dues confirmation.

Then work through the long tail, which is genuinely long: property tax records, the electricity and water connections, the gas connection, and any rent agreement where the property is let. Each is a separate application, and each becomes harder the longer the account stands in a dead person's name.

If the property is rented out, tell the tenant in writing who is now to receive the rent, and to whom. Rent paid to the wrong person among the heirs is a common source of family conflict.

Jointly inherited property is held in undivided shares until the heirs partition it. That is fine while everyone agrees and unworkable when they stop — one co-owner cannot sell the whole property, and a mortgage generally needs all of them.

Where the family intends to hold it, a written family settlement or partition deed setting out shares and who occupies what is the single most useful document they can create. Where they intend to sell, doing it before the next generation inherits reduces the number of signatures needed from many to few.