Is the Tamil Nadu Encumbrance Certificate (villangam) available online?

Yes, for the digitised period, through the TNREGINET portal. Older entries usually need a manual search at the Sub-Registrar's office.

What is the difference between Form 15 and Form 16 in a Tamil Nadu EC?

Form 16 is issued when no charge or transaction is registered against the property in the searched period - a "nil" certificate. Form 15 is issued when one or more registered transactions, such as a sale or mortgage, are found.

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Encumbrance Certificate Tamil Nadu: how to get it online, and what it doesn't tell you

The records here

Your documents are in Tamil. The engine reads Tamil.

Your patta, chitta, encumbrance certificate, and every sale deed in the chain — read in their own language, with no translation step and no document set aside because of its script.

What TNREGINET won't tell you.

The portal shows registered transactions. It does not show unregistered partition arrangements or whether the land was ever poramboke. Registration records a transaction; it does not prove ownership.

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 Tahsildar's office for patta records.

Tamil Nadu · authorities, records, checks

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

Tamil Nadu keeps two parallel records for one plot: the revenue record (patta and chitta, held by the Tahsildar) and the registration record (the Sub-Registrar's index, searched through TNREGINET). A clean title is one where the two tell the same story.

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

Who administers what

Registration Department (Sub-Registrar offices): Registers deeds, issues certified copies and encumbrance certificates.
Revenue Department (Village Administrative Officer, Tahsildar): Patta, chitta and the change of name after a transfer.
CMDA: Planning permission and layout approvals inside the Chennai Metropolitan Area.
DTCP: Layout approval outside that area, which separates approved layouts from unapproved plots.
Corporations, municipalities and panchayats: Building plan approval, property tax and completion certificates.
HR&CE Department: Temple and endowment land, which cannot be sold like ordinary land.

The records your report reads

Patta: Names the pattadar, survey number, sub-division and extent; the main revenue record of who holds the land.
Chitta: The village land register extract, showing classification (wet, dry, natham, poramboke) and the holder.
FMB sketch: The Field Measurement Book sketch, to compare the deed's boundaries against the surveyor's.
Town Survey Land Register: Used in place of the chitta in towns that have been town-surveyed.
Parent (mother) deeds: The earlier sale, partition, settlement or gift deeds that actually carry the title.
Tamil Nilam portal: The state's online land records service for patta and chitta extracts.

Registration and stamp duty

Deeds are registered under the Registration Act, 1908, with stamp duty under the Indian Stamp Act, 1899 as it applies in Tamil Nadu, and the Registration Department's guideline value sets the minimum value the duty is charged on. Registration records a transaction; it does not by itself prove ownership, so the report reads each deed against the revenue record.

Encumbrance searches

Encumbrance certificates (villangam, வில்லங்கச் சான்றிதழ்) come from the Registration Department and can be searched on TNREGINET for the digitised period; older entries usually need a manual search at the Sub-Registrar's office. The certificate lists registered transactions and charges only, so an unregistered agreement or a mortgage created by handing over title deeds will not appear on it.

How to get an Encumbrance Certificate in Tamil Nadu

Open the Encumbrance Certificate search on the TNREGINET portal.
Select the zone, district and Sub-Registrar Office (SRO) for the property.
Enter the survey number, or the document number, and the search period - the years you want the certificate (villangam) to cover.
Complete the captcha and submit the search.
View or download the certificate: Form 16 (nil encumbrance) if nothing is registered against the property in that period, Form 15 if a sale, mortgage or other charge is recorded.

This covers the digitised period shown on the portal; older entries usually need a manual search at the Sub-Registrar's office (see "Encumbrance searches" above). The portal states its own current fee at checkout - it is not repeated here. Search on the TNREGINET portal directly.

Is the Tamil Nadu Encumbrance Certificate (villangam) available online?: Yes, for the digitised period, through the TNREGINET portal. Older entries usually need a manual search at the Sub-Registrar's office.
What is the difference between Form 15 and Form 16 in a Tamil Nadu EC?: Form 16 is issued when no charge or transaction is registered against the property in the searched period - a "nil" certificate. Form 15 is issued when one or more registered transactions, such as a sale or mortgage, are found.

What a title check should verify in Tamil Nadu

Does the patta name the seller, and do the survey number and sub-division on it match the deed's schedule and the FMB sketch?
Is the chitta classification consistent with the intended use, for example land recorded as poramboke, natham or wet land?
Is the land in an approved layout (DTCP or CMDA), or an unapproved plot that depends on regularisation?
Is any part recorded as temple, endowment or Wakf land, or as Government-assigned land carrying a bar on transfer, such as panchami land?
Was every family partition or settlement registered, and does the encumbrance certificate cover the whole period the parent deeds span?
In Chennai and other town-surveyed areas, does the Town Survey record agree with the deed rather than an old village survey number?

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 1996," 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 — TAMIL NADU

The seller gave me a 30-year EC. What more is there?

An EC lists registered transactions — not unregistered agreements, not whether the chain those entries form is actually intact. We read the deeds behind the entries, not one certificate about them.

The land was partitioned in the family years ago, without a registered deed.

That is exactly the pattern that breaks Tamil Nadu chains. Upload whatever exists — the partition arrangement, the patta history, the parent deed — and the report will show you where the chain holds and where it doesn't.

How do I know this covers my district?

The check runs on your documents, wherever the property is — Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai, or a village SRO. Queries name the specific office holding any missing record.

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

Start your title check

Districts we cover in Tamil Nadu

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

Chennai · Chengalpattu · Kanchipuram · Coimbatore · Madurai · Tiruchirappalli · Salem · Thanjavur · Tirunelveli · Vellore · Erode · Tiruppur

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