Property tax arrears are one of those issues buyers assume someone else will catch, the bank, the sub-registrar, the broker, and often nobody does until the new owner receives a demand notice months after registration. In Bangalore, property tax liability under the BBMP system attaches to the property itself, not just the person who owed it, so an unpaid tax history can become your problem the moment you take possession.
Why Unpaid Tax Follows the Property, Not the Person
BBMP's Self-Assessment Scheme (SAS) requires property owners to pay tax annually, and while the demand is raised against whoever holds the Khata at the time, unpaid dues from a previous period do not get wiped out just because ownership changes hands. If you buy a property with pending dues and BBMP later reconciles its records, you can find yourself responsible for arrears you never personally incurred. This is a distinct issue from Khata itself, and we cover that separately in our Khata and tax status guide.
Step 1: Check the BBMP Property Tax Portal
Every property with a valid Property Identification Number (PID) or Khata number can be checked on the BBMP property tax payment portal, which shows the payment history for recent years, including whether the current year's tax has been paid and whether any arrears are outstanding. Ask the seller for the PID number and cross-verify it against the address and survey number on the title documents, since a mismatched PID is itself a red flag.
Step 2: Request Tax Paid Receipts, Not Just a Verbal Assurance
A seller telling you "tax is all paid" is not verification. Ask for the actual tax paid receipts (challans) for at least the last five years, and match the amounts and dates against what the BBMP portal shows. Discrepancies between what the seller claims and what the portal shows are common enough that we treat this as a standard check on every due diligence file, not an exception.
Step 3: Check for Litigation Over Tax Assessment
Occasionally a property tax dispute is under litigation, typically where the owner has contested BBMP's assessed value or zonal classification. If tax payment has been withheld pending a court or appellate order, this needs to be understood and disclosed before you buy, since you would inherit both the dispute and any eventual liability.
Step 4: Verify for Gramthana and B Khata Properties Separately
Properties under Gram Panchayat jurisdiction or holding a B Khata follow a different, often less digitised, tax payment trail, and verification may require a physical visit to the relevant Panchayat or BBMP zonal office rather than a portal check alone. Our Khata verification guide explains how BBMP and Gramthana records differ.
Step 5: Build a Tax Clearance Clause Into the Sale Agreement
Even after verification, it is good practice to include a clause in the sale agreement making the seller contractually responsible for clearing any tax arrears discovered up to the date of registration, and to hold back a proportionate amount from the sale consideration until a final clearance is confirmed on higher-value transactions. This gives you a contractual remedy in addition to the factual verification.
Why This Check Is Easy to Skip and Expensive to Skip
Property tax verification takes very little time compared to title chain tracing or RERA checks, which is exactly why it sometimes gets rushed or skipped entirely in a fast-moving deal. But arrears, once they surface post-registration, can involve penalty interest that compounds the longer they go unpaid, and resolving a dispute over who owes what after the fact is far more time-consuming than a five-minute portal check would have been.
Property tax and Khata verification are built into every Clawrity property due diligence engagement as standard, with our full report delivered in 5 to 7 working days. Get your property checked before you sign the sale agreement.