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Buying in Kerala? Most chains here run through inheritance. That is where they break.

The records here

Your documents are in Malayalam. The engine reads Malayalam.

Your thandaper, pokkuvaravu, EC, settlement and partition deeds, and every sale deed in the chain — read in their own language, with no translation step.

What Ente Bhoomi (the state's ILIMS portal, successor to e-Rekha) and the registration portal won't tell you.

They show registered instruments — not the heir who never signed, not pending family claims, not a partition that was agreed but never executed.

If a document is missing, your preliminary report names it, names the check it unlocks, and names the office holding it — the Sub-Registrar's office for certified copies and ECs, the village office for thandaper and pokkuvaravu records.

Kerala · authorities, records, checks

Title check in Kerala: who keeps the record, and what to verify

Kerala's small holdings, dense settlement and layers of land-use law mean title questions often turn on classification rather than on the chain of deeds alone: whether the plot is recorded as paddy land or wetland, whether it lies in a coastal regulation zone, and whether the village records match what the sale deed describes.

Compiled by the Property Opinion research team · last verified 23 September 2026

Who administers what

Village Office and Taluk (Tahsildar): Thandaper, land tax, possession and location certificates, and the change of registry.
Survey and Land Records: Survey sketches and the digital resurvey, published through the Ente Bhoomi portal.
Registration Department: Registers deeds and issues encumbrance certificates.
Grama panchayats, municipalities and corporations: Building permits, ownership and occupancy certificates, and building tax.
Agriculture Department and local monitoring committees: The Data Bank of paddy land and wetland under the Kerala Conservation of Paddy Land and Wetland Act, 2008.
K-RERA: Registered projects and promoters.

The records your report reads

Thandaper (Basic Tax Register): The village register recording each holder, survey number, extent and land tax.
Possession certificate: The Village Officer's certificate that the applicant is in possession of the land described.
Location certificate: Confirms the land's location, survey number and classification; needed for building permits and loans.
Pokkuvaravu: The change of registry after a transfer; the record must show the buyer's name.
Land tax receipts and survey sketch: Current payment of tax, and the plot's surveyed shape and area.
Data Bank entry: Whether the survey number is listed as paddy land or wetland.

Registration and stamp duty

Deeds are registered under the Registration Act, 1908, with stamp duty under the Kerala Stamp Act, 1959 and registration fee charged on the higher of the consideration and the fair value fixed by the government. Fair value is set by area and type of land, so the value stated in a deed is compared against it.

Encumbrance searches

Encumbrance certificates are issued by the Sub-Registrar's office from the registration index for the period asked, and the Registration Department's portal offers online search for digitised records. The certificate shows registered transactions; the Village Office records are needed for possession, tax and the status of the change of registry.

What a title check should verify in Kerala

Does the thandaper show the seller's name with the same survey number and extent as the deed, and was pokkuvaravu done after each transfer?
Is the survey number in the Data Bank as paddy land or wetland, which limits conversion and construction?
Does the plot fall in a Coastal Regulation Zone, or near backwaters, rivers or hill areas with extra restrictions?
Could the land be affected by the Kerala Land Reforms Act, 1963, through ceiling, tenancy or kudikidappu rights?
Is any part Devaswom, Wakf or Government land, or land held on a patta with conditions?
After the digital resurvey, do the area and boundaries in the resurvey record still match the deed?

Portal names and office structures change, and the law is applied to the facts of each property. Your report cites what your own documents and the records show, and names the office holding anything that is missing. It is an AI title analysis, not a legal opinion. Read a sample title scrutiny report or see the price.

What your report shows

Every finding linked to its source

— the document and clause, verifiable by you.

The checks that passed

— what was examined and found clean, listed.

Search depth stated as a year

— "traced back to 1988," with the offices searched.

Limitations in the report

— what the record shows, and what it cannot.

Read a real report → · How the title scrutiny works →

Pricing

Preliminary ₹1,999 + GST (₹2,359 all-in) — covers up to 100 pages, then ₹10 a page. The full title report is a separate ₹1,999 + GST.

FAQ — KERALA

The property came to the seller through a partition deed. Is that safe?

A registered partition deed is a strong link — the question is whether every person with a claim was a party to it. The check reads the deed and the chain behind it, and the report shows you who was conveyed and who wasn't.

Some heirs live abroad and never signed anything.

That's the single most common defect in Kerala chains. Whether it's fatal depends on what the documents actually executed — upload them, and the report will show you the exposure specifically, not generically.

The land records are decades old and partly handwritten.

Normal for Kerala, and not an obstacle. The engine reads old Malayalam records in their own script; where a record is only available at an office, the query names it.

It's the property check where you see everything it checked.

Start your title check

Districts we cover in Kerala

The check is the same across Kerala — the record terminology on this page applies statewide. Major districts, with dedicated district pages opening as search volume builds:

Thiruvananthapuram · Kollam · Ernakulam · Thrissur · Kozhikode · Kannur · Palakkad · Kottayam · Alappuzha · Malappuram

Coverage is not limited to this list — if the land records office for your district issues the documents, the engine reads them.