Buying a resale plot in YEIDA: the complete checklist

A resale plot can be the better buy — the sector is proven and the wait is over. It is also where every avoidable disaster on this corridor happens, and always in the same order.

Before any money moves

• The allotment letter, in the seller's name, with the plot number and sector matching what you were shown on the ground.
• The lease deed, if executed, and its registration details.
• A current dues position from the authority — not the seller's word, and not a receipt from two years ago.
• Confirmation that the plot is transferable today, and that any lock-in period has actually run.
• The seller's identity documents, matched against the allotment records.

If any one of these cannot be produced, that is the answer. A missing document at this stage does not get less missing after you have paid a token.

Lock-in is the one people get wrong

Allotments generally carry a period during which the plot cannot be transferred, running from a date set in the allotment terms. Sellers routinely quote it from memory, and routinely quote it from the wrong start date.

Read the clause in the actual allotment letter, establish the start date from the document rather than the conversation, and confirm the current position with the authority. A transfer attempted inside a lock-in does not simply get delayed; it can put the allotment itself in question.

Dues do not disappear at transfer

Outstanding instalments, accrued interest, lease rent arrears and penalties attach to the plot. A buyer who did not verify them inherits them, and the discount that made the deal attractive is usually smaller than the arrears that came with it.

The paperwork sequence

• Agreement to sell, with the payment schedule and the conditions on which the deal can be walked away from.
• Transfer permission from the authority, where the allotment terms require it.
• Transfer memorandum, executed per the authority's process.
• Registration, with stamp duty paid on the correct value.
• Mutation of records, so the authority's register shows you.

Skipping straight to a registry without the authority's transfer step is the single most common structural mistake on corridor resales.

Red flags

• A price meaningfully below the sector's transacted range, with urgency attached.
• A seller acting only through a power of attorney, especially an old one.
• Reluctance to let you approach the authority directly to verify.
• Any request for a large cash component.
• A plot on the ground that does not obviously correspond to the plot on the paper.

The one rule

Verify against the authority's records, not against paperwork handed to you by the person who wants your money. Every item on this list is an application of that single rule.