One flat sale produces a chain of documents, and each depends on the one before. The chain is not complicated. What makes registration day go wrong is that the documents live in different places — a booking form in a drawer, an agreement with the legal adviser, a payment statement in accounts, an NOC on someone's email — and nobody discovers a gap until the appointment is booked.
The chain
| Stage | Document | Signed by | What it establishes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enquiry | Requirement note | Sales | What the buyer wants |
| Reservation | Unit hold record | Sales manager | The unit is off the market, temporarily |
| Booking | Booking form, money receipt | Buyer and company | The unit is committed and money is received |
| Verification | Buyer KYC set — NID, photograph, TIN, address | Buyer | Who the buyer is |
| Agreement | Sale agreement with schedule and specification | Buyer and company | The contract |
| Ongoing | Receipts, statements, restructure records | Company | The payment history |
| Pre-registration | Clearance checklist, dues certificate, NOCs | Company | That the sale can be registered |
| Registration | Deed, registration receipts | Both, at sub-registry | Transfer of title |
| Handover | Snag list, handover certificate, key receipt, warranty pack | Both | Possession |
For an NRB buyer, add the power of attorney chain and remittance evidence — see the NRB buyer journey. For a joint venture unit, add the landowner allocation record.
The three documents that most often go missing
The signed payment plan. A discount is agreed after the agreement is drafted, the schedule is changed, and the signed plan is never reissued. At registration the buyer produces one figure and you produce another. Reissue and re-sign whenever terms change — that is what a restructure record is for.
The dues certificate. Registration should not happen while money is outstanding unless that has been explicitly agreed. Producing an accurate dues position on demand requires the buyer ledger to be current — see building a schedule that does not live in Excel.
The specification annexure. The finishes schedule attached to the agreement is what a buyer will hold you to at handover. If the agreement says "quality tiles" the argument at handover is guaranteed, and you will lose it.
Storage: attach to the unit, not the project
A document attached to the project is filed. A document attached to the unit and the buyer is findable. The test is simple: a buyer calls and asks whether their agreement includes a second parking slot. If answering means walking to a cabinet, the filing system is costing you time on every call.
Scanning matters less than attachment. A scanned PDF in a shared drive folder named by date is barely better than paper.
The pre-registration checklist
Run it twice — at agreement, and sixty days before the expected registration date:
- Buyer identity documents complete and current.
- Signed agreement matching the current payment schedule.
- Dues position agreed and documented.
- Landowner or JV consent, if the unit falls in that category.
- Project-level approvals and utility positions in place.
- Deed drafted and reviewed.
- Buyer briefed on registration-day costs, in writing. See AIT and VAT by transaction.
Two runs is the whole trick. The first finds what is missing while there is time; the second confirms nothing changed.
What to do next
Take three units at different stages and try to produce every document in the chain for each. Whatever takes more than a minute to find is what will be missing on a registration day — see documents attached to the unit and the buyer.