By Saurabh Garg, founder·7 min read·Published 2026-06-11·Updated 2026-08-09

Short answer: Twelve checks protect an India property owned from abroad: records in your name, an Encumbrance Certificate once a year, a CERSAI search, property tax paid and receipted, a narrow special power of attorney with sale power excluded in words, a registered tenancy naming you, rent into your NRO account, dated inspection photographs, itemised bills, a written approval floor, a legal notice the week anything goes wrong, and a written exit from whoever manages the property.

The NRI Property Scam Checklist: Twelve Checks That Close the Gaps

Owners who are watched do not get robbed. Every check below exists to put a dated record between your property and the person who would take it, and eleven of the twelve can be done from a laptop abroad.

Fraud against an owner living outside India needs three ingredients: a record nobody updated, money moving through a route nobody can see, and a property nobody has stood inside. Take any one away and most of the patterns stop working. Run this once a year and it takes an afternoon.

The record block

1/ The ownership record is in your name. The registered sale deed, and the mutation record behind it: khata in Bangalore, the property card and 7/12 extract in Maharashtra, patta and chitta in Tamil Nadu. A record still naming a deceased parent is the softest target there is, and khata and mutation for the remote owner sets out how to file from abroad.

2/ An Encumbrance Certificate, once a year. It lists every registered transaction against the property. A sale deed or mortgage you never signed appears here and nowhere else you will look by accident. Ask for a period that starts before the date you acquired the property.

3/ A CERSAI search. The Central Registry of Securitisation Asset Reconstruction and Security Interest of India records security interests created by lenders. A small fee, a few minutes, and it catches a registered charge the Encumbrance Certificate period may miss. Where and how to pull all six records is in how to check your own title.

4/ Property tax paid, receipted, in your name. This year's receipt, your name on it. Arrears are a public flag that the owner is absent, and an unpaid municipal demand can turn into an attachment.

The authority block

5/ A narrow special power of attorney. One named property, a closed list of management acts, sale, gift, mortgage and long leases excluded in express words, no right to appoint a sub-attorney, an expiry date, and a duty to account each quarter. Never a general power of attorney. The clause-by-clause version is in POA misuse and the clauses that stop it.

6/ A registered tenancy that names you as the licensor. Not the manager, not the relative. The deposit stated, the term stated, a copy in your hands. You cannot quantify a liability you have never read.

7/ Rent into your NRO account. From the tenant, on a stated date. Money that rests in someone else's account is not your money while it rests there, and it is the single most common place an informal arrangement goes quiet.

The eyes block

8/ Dated inspection photographs on a schedule. Geotagged, sent before you ask. This is the record that breaks a claim of continuous, open possession you never noticed, and it is the difference between a vacant property and an unwatched one.

9/ Itemised bills with invoices attached. A repair reported as an amount is a number somebody chose. If a bill cannot be itemised, it cannot be honest.

10/ A written approval floor. The rupee figure above which nobody spends without your written consent. A firm with no floor has a floor of infinity. Questions nine to twelve are covered in full in how to verify a property manager in India.

The reaction block

11/ A legal notice the week anything goes wrong. An advocate's notice by registered post, dated, on the first sign of an occupation, an unauthorised transfer or a tenant who has stopped paying. Under Section 6 of the Specific Relief Act, 1963, the fast possession remedy expires six months from dispossession, and under Article 65 of the Limitation Act, 1963, twelve years of hostile, open and continuous possession can extinguish your right to recover the property. The first week is set out in what to do about an encroachment.

12/ A written exit. Notice period, return of keys and originals, the deposit and the tenant relationship, in the agreement, before you sign it. A service that makes leaving hard is telling you what staying will be like.

The three that matter most if you only do three

Records in your name. Rent into your NRO account. Dated photographs on a schedule. Those three remove the stale record, the invisible money route and the unwatched property, which is the whole raw material list. The catalogue of the individual scams these checks defeat, including the ones aimed at buyers, is in NRI property scams in India.

FAQ

What should an NRI check on their India property every year? Pull an Encumbrance Certificate for a period starting before you acquired the property, confirm the mutation record and the registered sale deed name you, run a CERSAI search for registered security interests, and confirm the property tax is paid and receipted in your name. Where the property is let, also read the current tenancy agreement and confirm rent is reaching your NRO account on the stated date.

How can an NRI protect property in India from fraud? Keep the ownership record current in your own name, pull an Encumbrance Certificate once a year, grant only a narrow special power of attorney with sale and mortgage power excluded in words, route rent to your NRO account from the tenant, take dated inspection photographs on a schedule, demand itemised bills, and send a legal notice the week anything goes wrong rather than after negotiations fail.

What documents should an NRI keep for a property in India? The registered sale deed and its certified copy, the latest Encumbrance Certificate, the mutation record such as khata, property card or patta, this year's property tax receipt, the registered power of attorney and any deed of revocation, the current tenancy agreement with the deposit stated, and the management agreement with its termination clause.

How often should an NRI inspect a property in India? On a schedule rather than on suspicion, with dated and geotagged photographs sent before you ask for them. A regular documented visit records that the property stays under the owner's control, which breaks the continuous and undisturbed possession an adverse possession claim has to prove under Article 65 of the Limitation Act, 1963.

What is the fastest legal remedy if someone occupies an NRI property in India? A summary suit under Section 6 of the Specific Relief Act, 1963, which recovers possession on the strength of prior possession alone without proof of title, and which must be filed within six months of dispossession. After that window the remedy is a suit on the strength of title, where the twelve-year period under Article 65 of the Limitation Act, 1963 applies.

Run the checklist against us first

Print this page and mark the boxes 66 MG Road would fail. That is a better use of it than reading our service page. We pull the records once a year and send the documents rather than a summary, work under a narrow special power of attorney with sale power excluded, route rent to your NRO account, and send dated photographs before the invoice. On the ground we are in Bangalore and Hyderabad; in Mumbai, Pune, Chennai and Gurgaon we work through broker partners and say so on every property.

This is general information, not tax or legal advice. Confirm your own position with a qualified adviser.

Saurabh Garg, founder, 66 MG Road

Sources

Information on this page is as on 2026-08-09. Rules, rates, deadlines and government portals change without notice, so verify against the official source before you act. This page is for information only. It is not tax or legal advice, and it is not a substitute for a qualified adviser who knows your position.