Is it mandatory to sign Sale Agreement prior to Sale Deed?

Is it mandatory to sign Sale Agreement prior to Sale Deed?

The sale agreement constitutes the terms and conditions of sale of a property. The sale agreement should include details about the seller, buyer, consideration, date of sale deed registration and property schedule. Seller, buyer and two witnesses sign the sale agreement


Now comes to your question, sale agreement is the crucial documents that outlines the entire transaction from initial offer to delivery of possession. It’s safe to sign the sale agreement to avoid the differences and protect the interest of both parties.

We must not ignore sale agreement signing under two circumstances:

  1. Under-construction property would take couple of year to deliver the possession, we need promissory document like sale agreement from builder or developer to fulfill the sale proceed. It’s mandatory to sign “construction cum sale agreement” for under-construction property
  2. If buyer opt home loan for any type of property (like under construction, ready for possession or resale), its mandatory to sign the sale agreement because sale Agreement is part of home loan documentation. Sale agreement can be registered or unregistered for home loan documentation.

Sometime I tend to ignore the sale agreement when the property is ready for possession and self-finance the purchase, because this will expedite my time and bring down the cost. Let me give a real example for your better understanding

One of my NRI client lives in Quebec City, Canada. He travels to India frequently for business purpose, he decided to have permanent accommodation instead staying in Hotel. The idea is to buy a low budget home in gated community to save the hotel cost. Below is my client requirement

  • Property type: Ready for possession in a gated community with 24X7 security
  • Location: Bangalore or Hyderabad
  • Budget : Rs.30 lakh
  • Mode of fund: Self-finance

After exploring around 15 days in market through 99acres and magicbricks, we found 2BHK flat with one covered car parking. The property located in Doddanagamangala, Bangalore.

The price is just Rs.22.8 lakh for 600 sq.ft flat in gated community. It’s a corner flat with 3 side open ventilation. The property has e-Khata, it means that title documents are legible. (even we explored in Hyderabad for competitive pricing with similar specification, but we didn’t get such good property at this best price). Without any dilemma, my client decided proceed with the property in Bangalore.

The buyer living in Quebec city, Canada. The seller living in Salem, Tamil Nadu. Both the seller and buyer are not available in Bangalore to register sale agreement. We thought of executing unregistered sale agreement, which would take almost 15 -20 days in transit from Bangalore – Salem – Quebec city- Bangalore. Also, it would cost around Rs.10,000 for shipment.

Considering the factors of:

  • Geographical constrains
  • High Shipment cost
  • Self-financing the purchase

We suggested our client to drop the sale agreement. Accordingly, we had mutual discussion with seller and dropped the sale agreement execution.

We agreed that, buyer will pay Rs.5.8 lakh in advance and remaining Rs.17 Lakh at the time of deed registration. Accordingly, the buyer paid Rs. 5.8 Lakh to seller through Remitly which is the prominent fund transfer mode in USA and Canada, seller received the payment instantly. We used Remitly because buyer made the payment from Canadian Dollor to Indian Rupee

As per our plan, the buyer will come to India for sale deed registration but due to some emergency, buyer cancelled the visit. As an alternative, buyer gave GPA to his father in India to register the property on his behalf, below is the image of GPA

We booked the registration slot one week ahead and informed the schedule to seller and GPA holder so they have sufficient time to plan their visit to Bangalore for deed registration

As per the schedule, we registered the below sale deed in JP Nagar sub-registrar office.

The buyer from Canada paid the remaining payment of Rs.17 lakh through remitly just before seller signs the sale deed, the fund was instantly credited to seller

(Seller was in presumption that high value global transaction may take time to remit or worried that transaction may fail but it was an instant credit and the seller was happy that we fulfilled payment promise on time)

We purchased this property without signing sale agreement. More importantly, process was convenient because of advancement in global transaction.


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