Before you pay a token: what to settle in writing

A token or advance is usually the first money a buyer pays, and the one most often lost. Settle these questions with the owner, write the answers into an agreement of sale, and have your advocate read it before you pay anything. This is a checklist to take to your advocate, not a template.

First: have you seen the home and the papers?

• You have visited the home in person, and the person showing it is the owner named on the sale deed (or a co-owner).
• Your advocate has seen copies of the sale deed, the earlier sale deeds (link documents), a recent encumbrance certificate (EC), property tax receipts and building approvals. See how to check the EC and market value yourself.
• If the owner says there is a home loan on it, you know which bank and roughly how much is outstanding.

Questions to settle in writing

1. How much is the token, and who receives it? Pay only the owners named on the sale deed, by bank transfer to their own account, and get a signed receipt. Not cash, and never to a relative, “manager” or anyone else.
2. When is it refunded? If your advocate finds a problem with the title, if your home loan is not sanctioned by a date you agree, or if the owner backs out. Write how much comes back and by when.
3. What are the dates? Agreement of sale, each payment, registration, and handing over the keys.
4. If there is a loan on the home, how will it be closed? Who pays the bank, from which payment, and when the bank releases the original documents. Ask for the bank's letter showing the amount needed to close the loan.
5. Who must sign? Every co-owner, or the holder of a registered power of attorney. If the home was inherited, ask your advocate whether all legal heirs need to sign.
6. Who pays which charges? Stamp duty and registration, society transfer charges, maintenance and dues up to handover, and any corpus fund.
7. What stays with the home? List fittings, appliances, car parking slots and anything else you are paying for.
8. If the seller is an NRI, ask a CA about TDS before agreeing how you will pay.

Stop if you hear this

• “Pay a token to book a visit” or “pay today, another buyer is waiting”.
• “Send it to my brother's / my manager's account” or to a UPI ID that isn't the owner's.
• The papers will be shown “after the token”.

If you have already paid and think it was a scam, call the cyber-crime helpline 1930 or report it at cybercrime.gov.in, and keep the chat. On Needam, report the listing from its page. Needam never asks you for money.