In the years following the real estate boom in 2004-’05, many homebuyers were caught in housing frauds, when investors and real estate developers sold the same apartment to multiple buyers and got the banks to finance them all. The lack of a centralised system to check house registrations has been cited as one of the reasons for such frauds.

“We are making duplicate records of the index-2 copies of the house registration records, which is required when lawyers and bankers conduct a search to trace the history of a property, or to check if it has been registered before, “ said Ambar H Pawar, Deputy Inspector-General of Registration.

It was a people-friendly notification in October 2005 to make

property registration easier that, lawyers say, was abused by investors looking to make a quick buck.

The government made it possible for homebuyers to register their property in any of the 20 registrar offices in the city.

While this opened up options for homebuyers, it also increased room for potential fraud, lawyers said. “Even now, there are chances of fraud. The government should get the IGR to issue “non-encumbrance certificates” to prove that the property is secure. There should be facilities for manual and computerised search,” said advocate Kiran Wagaj.

Pawar, however, said lawyers are making a big deal out of it. “They are paid to conduct searches — to see that the property is not registered anywhere else,” he said.