GURUGRAM: Haryana’s Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini has announced a proposal to mandatorily register Agreements to Sell in order to enhance transparency and legal protection in property transactions during the budget statement.
Currently, these agreements are often made on plain paper or notarized privately, without official documentation.
This lack of registration exposes buyers to risks such as fraud, double-selling, delayed possession, and lengthy litigation, as unregistered agreements carry lesser evidentiary weight in legal disputes.
By requiring registration, the government aims to ensure that all property commitments are formally documented, time-stamped, and recorded with revenue authorities. This will help verify ownership, prevent multiple agreements for the same property, and provide enhanced legal protection for both buyers and sellers.
This reform is expected to significantly reduce property scams, expedite dispute resolution, and foster trust in real estate transactions, making the market more transparent, secure, and accountable for all parties involved.
In Haryana, an Agreement to Sell has historically been viewed as a contractual document rather than a title-creating document. Most agreements between buyers and sellers, especially in secondary market transactions, are executed on stamp paper and notarized but do not require registration.
Since these agreements aren’t necessarily registered, they often don’t appear in official land records, leading to conflicts over ownership, double-selling, fraudulent GPA or SPA transfers, and disputes over possession or payments. Many cases escalate to court when sellers withdraw or buyers seek enforcement based on unregistered agreements.
The Registration Act of 1908 mandates the logging of sales, conveyances, and certain lease deeds; however, Agreements to Sell are not included unless specified otherwise by state regulations. This reliance on notarized agreements carries limited evidentiary value compared to registered documents.
However, the regulatory framework differs for real estate projects under Haryana RERA, which requires builders to provide registered agreements for sale to homebuyers after receiving up to 10% of the sale amount. Promoters cannot accept higher advances without completing this registration. RERA also mandates a standardized agreement format that developers must adhere to, covering payment schedules, possession timelines, penalties, and rights of both parties. These documents must be uploaded on the RERA portal, ensuring transparency and preventing arbitrary clauses or unilateral cancellations.
The differing regulations—optional registration in the general market versus mandatory registration for RERA-governed projects—have led to two parallel systems. While RERA offers stronger protections and clear enforcement for homebuyers, the broader property market continues to utilize unregistered agreements, which remain a significant source of litigation and fraud.
