Khata, Mutation and the Record Nobody Updates

Registration transfers ownership. Mutation updates the municipal record of who pays the tax. They are different steps, the second is routinely skipped, and the consequences surface years later when somebody tries to sell or borrow.

Two different records

The sale deed sits with the registration department and establishes title. The municipal record — khata in Karnataka, mutation elsewhere — records who the local body bills for property tax.

Mutation does not create ownership and its absence does not remove it. What it does is make the ownership visible to the authority that matters for everyday purposes.

A khata is not a title document, though it is regularly sold as one. Anybody who tells a buyer that an A-khata proves clean title is overstating it.

In Bengaluru the A and B distinction matters: A-khata properties are on the main register and generally financeable; B-khata properties sit in a separate register with restrictions on loans and building approvals.

Why the gap causes trouble

Without mutation, the tax bill keeps arriving in the previous owner's name. That sounds cosmetic until the buyer needs a tax receipt in their own name for a loan or a resale.

Utility transfers frequently depend on it. Electricity and water accounts are often keyed to the municipal record, not to the sale deed.

The gap compounds. Two unmutated sales in a row and the record shows an owner from a decade ago, which turns a straightforward resale into a documentation exercise.

Applying usually needs the registered sale deed, the latest tax receipt, the previous khata or mutation extract, an encumbrance certificate and an application to the local body, with variations by state.

Getting it done

Timelines vary from a few weeks to several months. Build it into your handover process rather than treating it as the buyer's problem after possession.

Tell your buyer at the point of sale, in writing, that mutation is a separate step they must complete. Most first-time buyers assume registration finished everything.

For your seller, an already-mutated property is worth a little more in practice, because it removes a question the buyer's lawyer would otherwise raise.