Guide
A transfer you never signed,
and where to check
A sale you never agreed to, or an entry made in the record behind your back. Before anything else, someone has to read what the record says today. This page shows who holds that record in Islamabad, how to get a report on a property, and what a court can do once a case is filed.
Where this applies This page covers property in Islamabad, and the authority that holds the record for it. What the record looks like elsewhere in Pakistan, and who holds it, is a separate question, and one for your advocate.
Getting a report on the property
The Capital Development Authority holds the record for property in Islamabad, through its housing, estate and land directorates.
It runs a verification service that produces a property verification report on a single property. The report is public, and the authority set the service up to help Pakistanis living abroad.
You need an account to use it. Registering is done on the authority’s own site.
The authority says the report is drawn from information it already holds, that it does not confirm or disprove anything, and that it is not advice. Treat it as a starting point to put in front of your advocate.
Among the things the report looks at are plots taken beyond the approved area, changes to the approved layout, land set aside for mosques or parks being used for something else, plots still mortgaged to the authority, and whether the building has its completion certificate.
Whether the scheme was ever approved
A private housing scheme in Islamabad needs two approvals, and they come in order. First the layout plan is approved. Then, once the rest is in place, a no objection certificate is issued.
Only after the no objection certificate may the sponsor start development work and sell plots.
The authority publishes the names of the schemes selling plots without those approvals. The list is alphabetical, it names each scheme and the road it sits on, and anyone can read it.
If the plot you were sold sits in one of those, that is the first thing your advocate needs to know.
Once a case is filed
Where the owner lives abroad and the property is in Islamabad, a property dispute goes to the special court set up for it.
Once the notices in that case are out, the other side may not sell the property, mortgage it or hand over possession. A transfer made anyway has no legal effect.
The court can make orders against someone who bought the property in breach of that, and against someone holding it in another person’s name.
What to ask before you agree
- Which authority holds the record for this property, and can you pull it?
- Was the scheme my plot sits in ever approved?
- What does the record say the position is today, and what does it show happening before that?
- The property has been sold on since. Does that put it out of reach?
- What is your fee, and what is not included in it?
More in Land and property
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Also relevant
Words you will meet
- the record
- What the office holds about the land today: who owns it and what has been entered.
- an entry
- A change written into the record, for example a sale or a transfer.
- a report
- A copy of what the record says, that you can ask for.
- a sale you never signed
- A transfer entered in the record without you.