Property Due Diligence Report (Pre-Purchase)

How does a pre-purchase review combine the evidence?

Start with the exact flat, wing, phase and seller rather than the development brand. Large developments can contain several registrations, land parcels and approval stages. The due diligence matrix should map the proposed unit to its registration, approved plan, commencement permission, agreement and payment schedule. A document relating to another phase is not evidence that the buyer’s own building has the same permission.

Title review asks who can sell; technical review asks what may be built; RERA review asks what has been disclosed and promised. Those workstreams should meet in one issues register. For example, an agreement might promise an amenity located outside the registered phase, or a payment milestone might assume construction beyond the approved commencement stage. Such inconsistencies are more useful to a buyer than a collection of unrelated document summaries.

• RERA Act, 2016, Section 4 (application for registration)
• RERA Act, 2016, Section 11 (functions and duties of promoter)
• RERA Act, 2016, Section 13 (no deposit or advance without written agreement)

What do litigation and financial checks actually establish?

Record the databases, party names and search date used for litigation enquiries. Similar names require identity checks, and a case listing should be read with the actual order where material. Pending proceedings do not automatically make every sale invalid; their subject, interim directions and connection to the property matter. Absence of a result does not establish absence of every dispute.

Public project disclosures can help identify stale updates, declared encumbrances and unusual progress differences. They rarely provide enough access to certify the health of the designated bank accounts. A financial review should label information as publicly available, promoter-supplied or independently confirmed. If statements or certificates are not supplied, report that limitation rather than claiming an escrow audit. A background check and a transaction-level financial examination are different engagements.

• RERA Act, 2016, Section 11 (functions and duties of promoter)
• MahaRERA Order 56/2024, 27 June 2024: maintenance and operation of project bank accounts

How are findings turned into a purchase decision?

The deliverable should separate stop-and-investigate issues from conditions that can be satisfied at completion and matters the buyer must monitor later. Each issue needs an evidence reference and a practical question for the seller. Examples include obtaining the approval for the offered floor, explaining a discrepancy in carpet area, or securing the lender’s unit-release documentation before payment.

The client decides whether to proceed after taking case-specific advice; a diligence report is not a recommendation on investment returns. Have the agreement reviewer carry unresolved matters into written conditions rather than relying on sales-office assurances. Where the deal changes after review, send the revised documents back for comparison. The report should identify the cut-off date and the documents that would trigger a fresh review.