What an EC does and does not show
An EC shows documents registered against the property in the period searched: sales, mortgages, gifts, leases, releases, court attachments. It is drawn from the Sub-Registrar’s index for that property.
What it does not show is equally important. Unregistered transactions do not appear: an unregistered agreement to sell, an oral mortgage, or possession by a third party. Nor does an EC show pending litigation unless an attachment has been registered, or tax arrears, or unauthorised construction. It is a necessary check, not a sufficient one.
Applying, and choosing the period
The application is straightforward; the judgement is in the parameters.
Reading the entries
The entries that matter most are mortgages without a corresponding release, sales by someone who does not appear in the chain, attachments by a court or tax authority, and lease entries that reveal a tenant with rights.
An unreleased mortgage is the commonest finding. Very often the loan was repaid years ago and the discharge was simply never registered: fixable, but only by the person who took the loan, which becomes difficult after a death or a fallen-out family. Insist on the release being registered before completion rather than accepting an assurance.