Most property disputes in Pakistan are not caused by bad luck. They are caused by a payment made before a document was checked. Once money has changed hands, the buyer's position weakens considerably, and what would have been a two-week verification becomes a two-year suit.
The checks below are the ones that actually decide whether a purchase is safe. They are listed in the order they should be done, because each one can stop the process before the next becomes necessary.
1. Establish who is entitled to sell
Begin with the seller, not the property. Confirm the identity of the person offering the sale and confirm that the same person appears on the record as the owner. Where the sale is being conducted through an attorney, the power of attorney must be examined for scope, for whether it is still in force, and for whether it was properly executed and attested.
Where the property is inherited, all legal heirs must be identified. A sale executed by one heir alone, over property that has not been formally partitioned, is a common source of litigation years later.
2. Trace the chain of title
The chain should run back far enough to show how the current owner acquired the property, and from whom. Gaps matter. A break in the chain, an unexplained transfer, or a mutation entered without a corresponding registered deed all need to be accounted for before a payment is made.
What is examined depends on the property. Revenue land is checked through the record of rights and the register of mutations. Property in a private housing scheme or cooperative society is checked through the society's own transfer record, and directly with the society rather than only through documents supplied by the seller.
3. Check for encumbrances
A property can look clean on the face of the title and still carry a mortgage, an attachment ordered by a court, a pending suit, or an unpaid tax liability. Each of these can survive the sale and attach to the buyer. Confirm the position on outstanding utility charges, property tax and any society dues at the same time.
4. Verify the physical property
Documents describe a property; they do not confirm it exists as described. Visit the site. Confirm the boundaries against the site plan, confirm the measurements, and confirm who is actually in possession. A tenant in occupation, a structure built over a boundary, or a plot that does not correspond to its numbering are all matters to resolve before, not after.
5. Confirm the approvals
For a plot in a scheme, confirm that the scheme itself is approved by the relevant development authority and that the specific plot is part of the approved layout. For a constructed property, confirm that the building plan was approved and that what stands on the site matches it. Unapproved construction can be regularised in some cases and cannot in others, and that distinction is worth establishing before purchase.
6. Get the agreement right
The agreement to sell should record the full consideration, the payment schedule, the date and manner of transfer of possession, who bears which taxes and charges, and what happens if either side defaults. An agreement that records only a price and a date leaves every foreseeable dispute unaddressed.
Pay through traceable banking channels. A cash payment that cannot be evidenced is difficult to recover if the transaction fails.
A short note on urgency
Pressure to pay quickly, a discount that expires this week, or a seller who resists document verification are the three most reliable warning signs in a property transaction. A seller with clean title has no reason to object to it being checked.
This note is general information about how matters of this kind usually proceed in Pakistan. It is not legal advice on your situation. If the subject affects you directly, speak to a lawyer about the specific facts.