Disclaimer: not legal advice

Please read this page before you rely on anything on Kaagazaat. It explains what the site is, what it is not, and what you have to check and do yourself.

In short

• Kaagazaat is a library of general drafts of property documents. It is not a law firm, and nothing on it is legal advice.
• The drafts are meant only for property in Punjab and Chandigarh.
• Nobody at Kaagazaat has read your facts. You are responsible for what you fill in, and for stamp duty, registration, signing and witnessing.
• Speak to an advocate about your own situation before you sign.
• Kaagazaat does not check, recommend or advertise any advocate, broker or builder who uses the site.

1. About this page

Kaagazaat (www.kaagazaat.com) is run by M/s Sudeep Sachdeva & Associates, a sole proprietorship of Sudeep Sachdeva, whose office is at Office No. A-415, 4th Floor, Tower-A, Bestech Business Towers, Sector 66, Mohali, Punjab 160062. On this page, "Kaagazaat", "we" and "us" mean M/s Sudeep Sachdeva & Associates.

This page applies to everything on the site: the document drafts, the questions and forms you fill in, the notes on stamp duty, registration, notarisation and witnesses, any guides and checklists, and any document you read on screen, print or download.

It forms part of our Terms of Use. Our Privacy Policy explains how we handle your information.

2. Kaagazaat is not a law firm

Kaagazaat is a library of drafts of property documents. It is not a law firm. We do not give legal advice, we do not act for you, and we do not appear for anyone before a court, tribunal, registrar or other authority.

The site builds a draft from a general template and the answers you give. Nobody at Kaagazaat reviews your answers or adapts the draft to your situation.

For legal advice about your own situation, or for someone to act for you, go to an advocate enrolled under the Advocates Act, 1961, whom you choose and engage yourself.

3. Nothing here is legal advice

Everything on Kaagazaat is general information and general drafting. None of it is legal advice, a legal opinion, or a recommendation about what you should do.

Nobody here has read your facts, checked your finished document or advised you. Kaagazaat does not stand behind your finished document the way an advocate you had engaged would.

Using the site, making an account, filling in a form, printing or downloading a document, or writing to us does not create an advocate–client relationship between you and Kaagazaat, or between you and anyone who works with us.

What you tell us is not covered by the confidentiality that the law gives to communications between an advocate and their client. Our Privacy Policy explains how we handle it.

4. What a draft is, and what our checking means

The drafts are general templates for common situations. The library is organised around property documents such as rent and leave-and-licence agreements, agreements to sell and sale deeds, gift and family documents, notices and dispute papers, loan and mortgage papers, and papers used with brokers, builders and RERA. Not every kind of document has a draft, and each document's page says whether you can fill it in here.

A draft cannot cover every situation, and it is not written for yours. It knows only what you tell it. A blank line (__________) in a draft marks a question that has not been answered; a draft with blanks in it is not finished.

Before a draft is published on the site, it goes through our own drafting, checking and review process, and it is published only after we approve it. That process is about the general template. It does not look at your facts, and it does not mean that a lawyer, a court, a registrar, a bank or any other authority has approved the document for your use.

Drafts can contain mistakes, and they can go out of date. We make no promise or warranty that any draft is correct, complete, current, valid or enforceable, or that it suits your purpose.

Read the whole document before you sign it, and make sure it says what you and the other parties mean.

5. For Punjab and Chandigarh only

This version of Kaagazaat is meant only for property in the State of Punjab and the Union Territory of Chandigarh.

Where a page states a rate, a fee, an office or a practice, it states it for Punjab, for Chandigarh, or for both, as the page says. The two have different rates, offices and land records, so use the notes for the place where the property is.

Even within Punjab or Chandigarh, the right document and the law that applies can depend on your facts — for example, on when a tenancy began or on what kind of land is involved.

If the property is anywhere else in India, do not use these drafts or notes for it.

6. Laws, rates and practice change

Laws, rules, government notifications, stamp duty rates, registration fees, collector rates and office practice all change, sometimes with little notice.

We review the drafts and notes from time to time, but a change can take effect before we have updated a page. Each page describes the position as we understood it when that page was last reviewed.

Check the position that applies on the day you sign, pay stamp duty or register.

7. Stamp duty is your responsibility

Stamp duty is charged under the Indian Stamp Act, 1899, as it applies in Punjab (with Punjab's own amendments) and as it applies in Chandigarh, at the rates in force at the time. The amount depends on the kind of document, what it says, the property, the price or rent, the parties and the date.

Our notes describe the position for that kind of document. Any stamp duty figure on the site is general information, not a calculation of what you owe. Where the site works a figure out from your answers, it is only as good as those answers and the rates we have recorded.

Before you pay, confirm the amount and the correct way to pay with the Sub-Registrar's office, or the stamp authority, for the place where the property is.

Paying the right duty, in the right way and on time, is your responsibility. A document that is not properly stamped can be refused as evidence, and refused for registration, until the missing duty and any penalty are paid (Indian Stamp Act, 1899, section 35).

8. Registration, signing and witnesses are your responsibility

Some documents must be registered under the Registration Act, 1908 — for example, many documents that create, transfer or give up rights in immovable property, and leases for more than a year (section 17). Whether yours must be registered depends on the document and its terms.

A document that must be registered but is not may have no effect on the property, and may not be accepted as evidence of the transaction, except for limited purposes (section 49).

There are time limits for presenting a document for registration. Registration offices also apply their own rules and practice — for example on appointments, identity proof, photographs, witnesses, fees, the language of the document, and who may write or present it. Ask the office before you go.

Signing and witnessing must be done correctly: the right people must sign, in the right capacity, with the witnesses that the law or the office requires. Notarising a document is not the same as registering it, and it does not replace registration where registration is required.

Stamping, signing, witnessing, notarising where needed, and registering your document correctly and on time are your responsibility.

9. What you enter is your responsibility

A document is only as accurate as the information in it. Check every name, relationship, address, property description, measurement, amount and date against the original records — for example, the title deed, the land records or the allotment letter.

Choosing a document that fits your situation is your responsibility. Each document's page explains what the document is for, but only you, with advice where you need it, can decide whether it is the right one.

Use the site only for lawful purposes. Do not use it to make a document you know to be false or misleading.

10. Get advice on your own situation

Before you sign, speak to an advocate you have chosen about your own situation — especially for a sale, a gift, a mortgage, a will, a family settlement or partition, a lease for more than a year, or anything involving a dispute.

Notices and dispute papers can carry strict time limits and formal requirements, and a mistake can cost you a right. Take advice early.

A property transaction can have tax consequences beyond stamp duty. Take tax advice separately.

If you are a professional using a draft for a client, you remain responsible to your client for your own advice and your own work.

11. Advocates, brokers and builders on Kaagazaat

Advocates, property brokers, and builders or developers can make accounts and use the drafts in their own work. The profile a person chooses decides which documents they see first. It gives them no extra standing and no approval from us.

When they sign up, an advocate may type a Bar Council enrolment number, and a broker or builder may type a RERA registration number. We keep what they type, as they typed it, and mark it as unchecked. We do not check these numbers, the person's identity or qualifications, or whether they are entitled to practise law or to deal in property.

Kaagazaat does not offer, list, recommend, rank, rate or advertise advocates, and it does not refer anyone to an advocate. Advocates are bound by the Advocates Act, 1961 and the Bar Council of India Rules, which restrict advocates from soliciting work or advertising (Rule 36). The site is not a channel for either, and advocates who use it remain responsible for keeping to their own professional rules.

A professional's account, name, chambers, firm or registration number — including on the letterhead of a document they prepare — is not an endorsement by Kaagazaat, and it does not mean we have checked them.

If you receive a document that carries a professional's name, firm or number, that professional chose to add it. They, not Kaagazaat, are responsible for their advice and their work.

To check an advocate's enrolment, ask the State Bar Council on whose roll they are entered (for Punjab and Chandigarh this is usually the Bar Council of Punjab & Haryana). To check a broker's or builder's RERA registration, ask the Real Estate Regulatory Authority that registered them.

Any arrangement you make with an advocate, broker or builder is between you and them. We are not a party to it, and we are not responsible for their services, fees or conduct.

12. No promise of any outcome or acceptance

We make no promise that a document will be accepted by a Sub-Registrar, a revenue officer, the Estate Office, a municipal body, a housing society, a bank, a Real Estate Regulatory Authority, a court, a tribunal or anyone else, or that it will have the effect you want.

Each office applies the law and its own practice. It may ask for changes, for more documents, or for its own form.

We make no promise that using a draft will protect you in a dispute or lead to any particular result.

13. Languages and translations

Most of the site's own pages are in English, Hindi and Punjabi. The documents, and some of the text that goes with them — such as the questions on a form and the notes on stamp duty and registration — may be in English only.

The documents are drafted in English. Where the site shows a document in Hindi or Punjabi alongside the English, the Hindi or Punjabi text is a translation to help you understand it. The English text is the one that is signed. Legal words do not always translate exactly, and we make no promise that a translation is exact. If the English and the translated text differ, the English text governs.

A registrar, bank, court or other office may want a document in a particular language, or with a translation. Check before you sign.

If a Hindi or Punjabi page of this site differs from the English version of the same page, the English version applies.

14. Links to other websites

The site may link to government portals — for example, for land records, registration, police verification, or complaints about a bank or housing finance company — and to other websites. We do not run those websites, and we are not responsible for their content, accuracy, availability, fees or privacy practices. A link is not an endorsement.

Before you enter personal details or pay anything, check that you are on the official website.

15. If you find a mistake

If you think a draft, a note, a rate, a translation or a link is wrong or out of date, please tell us through the Grievance & Contact page. Tell us the name of the document, the address of the page and what you think is wrong. Please do not send more personal information than you need to explain the problem.

We read every report and correct the errors we confirm. The Grievance & Contact page explains how we handle reports and complaints, how long we take to reply, and who handles grievances.

We cannot advise you about your own matter in reply, and reporting a mistake does not make us your adviser.

16. Limits of our responsibility

To the extent the law allows, M/s Sudeep Sachdeva & Associates is not responsible for loss that arises from:

• relying on a draft or a note without taking advice on your own situation;
• information you entered, or the document you chose;
• a change in the law, a rate or a practice after a page was last reviewed;
• a decision by any office, bank, court or other person; or
• a document not being properly stamped, signed, witnessed or registered.

Nothing on this page takes away a right that the law does not allow to be taken away, including your rights as a consumer under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019. Our Terms of Use set out the rest of our terms on responsibility.

17. Changes to this page

We may update this page. The date at the top shows when it last changed. The version on the site when you use it applies to that use.