Encumbrance Certificate in Andhra Pradesh (IGRS AP, Form 15 and Form 16)

What is an encumbrance certificate in Andhra Pradesh?

An encumbrance certificate in Andhra Pradesh is a certificate from the Registration and Stamps Department, commonly called IGRS AP, listing every transaction registered against a property for a period you specify. An encumbrance is a registered claim that limits an owner's freedom to sell clean, a bank mortgage, a court attachment, a registered lease, a gift, a partition, a release deed or an earlier sale.

Andhra Pradesh issues the certificate in one of two numbered forms, and the distinction is the first thing to check on the document you receive:

• Form 15 is issued when transactions are registered against the property for the period searched. Form 15 lists each entry: sale, mortgage, lease, gift, release, partition or attachment, with the document number, the date, the parties and the consideration.
• Form 16 is a nil encumbrance certificate, issued when the register shows no transaction against the property for the period searched.

A Form 16 on land that has demonstrably changed hands is a warning sign, not a clean chit. It usually means the wrong survey number, the wrong Sub-Registrar Office or too short a period was searched.

Who can apply for an EC in Andhra Pradesh?

You can apply if:

• You are the owner of the land, plot, house or flat.
• You are a prospective buyer verifying the property before paying advance money.
• You are a bank or housing finance company processing a loan against the property, or an advocate issuing a title opinion.
• You are a legal heir working out what a deceased relative owned and what charges sit on it.
• You are any member of the public. Registered documents are public records under the Registration Act, 1908, and Andhra Pradesh does not ask for the owner's consent or a stated reason.

You cannot apply if, the real constraints are about the record, not the person:

• You cannot search without a property identifier. A survey number with subdivision, or a plot and flat number with the apartment name and village or ward, is what the index is built on. A postal address alone returns nothing.
• You cannot find transactions registered before 1 January 1983 through the online eEC. Those years exist only in the physical registers at the SRO.
• You cannot find unregistered dealings, an unregistered agreement of sale, an oral family settlement or a pending suit that has not been registered as an attachment.
• You cannot use the free unsigned search as a certificate. It is marked as informational and banks reject it.

What does an AP encumbrance certificate cost?

The unsigned EC search on IGRS AP is free. For the signed certificate, published guidance on the Registration and Stamps Department's fee places the formal search at approximately Rs 200 for a period up to 30 years and Rs 500 for a period beyond 30 years. Fees are revised from time to time, so treat the amount displayed on the IGRS AP payment screen, or the amount printed on the MeeSeva receipt, as the authority.

Pay only that amount. MeeSeva operators charge the notified service charge and must issue a printed receipt showing it. No officer can add or remove an entry in the register for money, there is no paid priority queue, and an agent offering to "clear" an encumbrance from an EC is describing a fraud. Run the free unsigned search yourself first, it takes about ten minutes and needs no payment, and pay only the portal or counter rate for the signed version.

How to apply for an encumbrance certificate in Andhra Pradesh online

1. Open registration.ap.gov.in, the Registration and Stamps Department portal, and find Encumbrance Search (EC) under the public online services.
2. Choose the search basis — by document number, by memo number, or by property details. If you hold a deed, search by document number, year and SRO name; it is far more accurate than a property description.
3. Select the district and the Sub-Registrar Office with jurisdiction over the property. AP has redrawn districts and mandals, so a recently created mandal may still be served by an older SRO.
4. Enter the property details, survey number with subdivision, village or ward, and the boundaries where the form asks for them, and set the period to be searched.
5. Run the free unsigned search first and read the result. Each row is a registered document with its number, year, nature of transaction and the parties. Note anything that looks like a mortgage without a matching release.
6. Register or log in with your mobile number and OTP when you want the signed certificate.
7. Pay the fee on the IGRS AP payment screen and save the reference or application ID shown on the receipt.
8. Download the signed EC from your account once the Sub-Registrar has signed it, or collect the printed copy if you asked for one.

How to get an AP encumbrance certificate at a MeeSeva centre

1. Visit the nearest MeeSeva centre with the property particulars written down, survey number, village, mandal, district and the period you need.
2. Submit the application in the prescribed format, giving the document details, registration year and SRO name to the operator.
3. Pay the applicable fee and the MeeSeva service charge and take the printed acknowledgement with the application number on it.
4. Track the request by SMS. MeeSeva sends status updates to the mobile number given at the counter.
5. Collect the certificate at the centre on the date given, or opt for delivery by post where that option is offered.

The MeeSeva route matters in Andhra Pradesh because it reaches applicants who do not have a smartphone, a card or net banking, and because the operator selects the correct SRO for you, the single step people most often get wrong online.

How to get a manual search from the Sub-Registrar Office

1. Identify the jurisdictional Sub-Registrar Office for the village or ward.
2. Submit a written application describing the property by survey number with subdivision, extent, boundaries, village and mandal, and stating the exact period.
3. Pay the notified search fee at the counter and take a printed receipt.
4. Collect the certificate on the date given. Pre-1983 years are searched by hand in the physical index registers, which is genuinely slower.

How do I check the status of an AP EC application?

• Online: log in to IGRS AP and open the application or transaction history, using the reference or application ID from your payment receipt.
• MeeSeva: track the application number on the MeeSeva portal or by the SMS updates sent to your registered mobile number.
• In person: at the Sub-Registrar Office counter with the acknowledgement.
• Escalation: the Sub-Registrar, then the District Registrar, then the Inspector General of Registration and Stamps, Andhra Pradesh.

How long is an AP encumbrance certificate valid?

An Andhra Pradesh EC has no expiry date, but it is only true up to the last date of the period it covers. A mortgage registered the day after the period ends will not appear in it.

Banks and buyers' advocates in Andhra Pradesh therefore ask for a freshly generated EC, usually not more than a few weeks old, and many run a short top-up search covering only the last month immediately before the sale deed is registered. There is no renewal. You run a fresh search for the new period, which costs a fraction of the full 30-year search.

Why do AP encumbrance certificates come back wrong?

• Wrong Sub-Registrar Office, producing an empty Form 16 that means nothing.
• Wrong survey number or subdivision, where 102/1 and 102/1A are different parcels of land.
• Village or mandal renamed or reorganised, so the dropdown selection misses the record.
• Period that starts after the problem. A 13-year EC will not show a mortgage created 16 years ago and never released.
• Searching only online for pre-1983 land, which the online eEC does not cover.
• Reading a nil Form 16 as clean title instead of as an absence of registered entries on that identifier in that office for that period.
• Skipping the parallel land-record checks; adangal or pahani, 1B, pattadar passbook, mutation and, for former assigned or endowment land, the prohibited property list.

Grievance and support route

• Portal: registration.ap.gov.in, for EC search, payment and download issues
• MeeSeva: the centre where the application was filed, quoting the application number
• Local level: the Sub-Registrar of the office holding the record
• District level: the District Registrar
• State level: the Inspector General of Registration and Stamps, Andhra Pradesh

Always carry the application or transaction number. Without it, no office can trace the request.