How to Check a Property Title in Brazil

What a title check has to answer

A title check answers four questions, and each one needs different papers:

Who owns it? The matrícula, the property's numbered record at the property registry, says so. Nothing else does: an IPTU bill, a sale contract and a deed all fall short.
What sits on it? Mortgages, bank liens, court seizures, usufructs, restrictions. These also go on the matrícula.
Can this person sell it today? That turns on marriage, inheritance, debts and any power of attorney. Most of this lives off the matrícula, in certificates on the seller.
Is what you saw the same thing that's on record? Area, building, boundaries, permits. That takes a visit.

Do this before you pay anything. If you're buying straight from an owner, the work is yours. The duty of a broker to warn you (art. 723 of the Civil Code) doesn't replace your own check either. It fits into the sequence of a purchase between the agreed price and the signed promise of sale.

Reading the matrícula

Every property has one matrícula at the registry for its area (Law 6.015/1973, arts. 169 and 176). It opens with a description: location, area, boundaries. Then come numbered entries in date order. An entry marked R (registro) records a right: a sale, a mortgage, a promise of sale. An entry marked Av (averbação) notes a change or a fact: a marriage, a demolished house, a canceled lien. Read from the first entry to the last, because a later entry may cancel an earlier one.

Order a full copy, called inteiro teor. You can do it through RI Digital, the national platform run by the ONR (the registries' operator), which covers all registries and can also search for properties linked to a CPF or CNPJ. With the number in hand, the registry has up to 4 office hours to issue the electronic copy once the fee is paid. A certificate of the current legal situation takes up to 1 day, and anything else up to 5 days (art. 19, §10). That copy alone proves ownership, rights and charges, and you need no separate certificate (art. 19, §11). If the property was last recorded under the old system, the record is a transcrição, which is slower to get and needs more reading.

When you have it, check these:

The last owner is your seller, with the same name, CPF and marital status. If the seller married or divorced later, there should be an entry for it.
The unit, area and address match the listing. In a condominium, the ideal fraction and parking spaces should match too.
Every mortgage, lien and seizure has a later entry canceling it.
Any reference to the Union, SPU or a RIP number means federal land.
The building is recorded. A plot on the record with a house on the ground needs an explanation.

Paraná's registrars pushed this same check in June 2026, citing national security data of about 98,000 fraud cases of all kinds a year in that state, more than ten an hour. Their advice was to confirm through RI Digital that the property is in the seller's name before paying anything.

What Law 13.097 protects and what it leaves open

Law 13.097/2015 changed the balance. Under art. 54, §1, a good-faith buyer is safe from any matter missing from the matrícula. Lawsuits, seizures and restrictions have to be noted on the record to bind you (art. 54, I to V; item V was added by Law 14.825/2024). In 2022, Law 14.382 added §2: a buyer doesn't need court certificates or further documents, beyond those Law 7.433/1985 lists, for the deal to be valid or to count as good faith.

The courts have moved the same way. STJ Súmula 375 says fraud against a creditor's enforcement needs a registered seizure or proof of the buyer's bad faith. A June 2025 article on the São Paulo notaries' site reports the STJ, in REsp 2.115.178/SP (published May 2024), as reading art. 54 to lift from the buyer the burden of searching for lawsuits.

So some in the notary world now say the matrícula is enough. Many lawyers still run the searches. Here are the reasons, and they aren't all the same strength:

Tax debt runs on a separate rule. See the next chapter. It is the strongest reason.
Art. 54 names its own exceptions. Bankruptcy acts under Law 11.101/2005, arts. 129 and 130, stay outside its protection. Public property is outside the law altogether (art. 58).
Some rights don't need registration. Marcelo Terra and co-authors argued in Conjur in 2017 that ownership gained by usucapião, long possession, isn't caught by the rule, and that you should still search the seller and prior owners in the civil courts.
Good faith is a fact. If you know of a lawsuit, or a search would have put it in front of you and you avoided it, you may not be the buyer the law protects.
The law itself is argued over. A 2024 article in Conjur says the law's rules conflict with art. 792, IV, of the Civil Procedure Code and argues the newer law should prevail, so expect argument on the point.

There is one clear exception in the buyer's favor. Registered units in a duly registered development can't be taken back from the buyer by the seller's creditors, who must claim against the price instead (art. 55). STJ Súmula 308 adds that a developer's mortgage to its bank doesn't bind the unit's buyers. The off-plan guide covers that case.

The tax-debt rule

Art. 185 of the National Tax Code presumes a sale fraudulent if the seller already owes a tax debt enrolled as dívida ativa, the government's formal debt roll, unless the seller kept enough assets to pay it. For sales since 9 June 2005, the STJ held in Tema 290 (REsp 1.141.990/PR, 2010) that the presumption is absolute. Súmula 375 doesn't apply. The buyer's good faith doesn't matter. Nothing has to be noted on the matrícula.

That is why the seller's tax certificates are the one search a careful lawyer won't skip. The rule covers federal, state and city tax debt enrolled against the seller.

In May 2026, the STJ's second panel added a procedural protection in REsp 2.170.194-SP. A judge must notify the buyer before declaring the fraud, so the buyer can file third-party objections (embargos de terceiro) within 15 days. The case involved an assignment of credits. The reasoning speaks of buyers generally, though it hasn't been tested on a home sale in the sources read here. You get a chance to be heard, and the presumption itself stays as it was.

Take an example. A seller owes R$ 500,000 in enrolled federal tax, has no other assets, and sells you an apartment for R$ 800,000. Months later, the tax authority asks the court to treat the sale as ineffective against it. Your good faith doesn't answer that. You could face seizure of the apartment up to the debt, plus legal costs, having already paid the full price. The federal certificate that would have shown the debt is issued online.

Read the certificate itself, as well as its title. Under art. 206 of the Code, a certificate listing debts that aren't yet due, or debts with enforcement on hold or already secured, has the effect of a clean one, and you'll see it called positiva com efeitos de negativa. It may be fine, but ask what the debt is and whether the arrangement behind it will last until you've registered. Prior owners matter too, if the last sale was recent, since an earlier sale can be attacked the same way.

Certificates on the seller

Pull these in the seller's name and, for a married seller, the spouse's name too. For a company, use the CNPJ.

Searches on the seller
Search	Who issues it	Shows	Notes
Federal tax and active debt	Receita Federal and PGFN (the Treasury's lawyers)	Federal tax and debts on the roll	Issued online. Clearances run up to 180 days (Law 8.212/1991, art. 47, §5)
State tax	State finance office	State tax debt	Each state has its own portal
City tax	City finance office	City tax debt in the person's name	Separate from the certificate on the property
State courts	Court distribuidor (filings office)	Civil cases and tax enforcement	Search the property's city and the seller's home city
Federal courts	Regional federal court	Federal cases, including federal tax enforcement	One court for each region
Labor debts	Labor courts	Unpaid labor judgments and settlements	The CNDT is free and electronic, and valid for 180 days (Law 12.440/2011)
Protests	CENPROT, the national protest offices' site	Unpaid bills protested at a notary	A sign of money trouble
Asset blocks	CNIB, run by the ONR	Court orders blocking a person's assets	A block can stop the deed
Bankruptcy and recovery	State court	Company insolvency	For company sellers and prior owners

Reading the result matters more than getting it. A lawsuit against a doctor for a R$ 20,000 bill, with a seller who owns other assets, reads very differently from a R$ 2,000,000 enforcement against a seller selling their only property. A debtor already insolvent can have a paid sale undone by unsecured creditors if the insolvency was notorious or the buyer had reason to know of it (Civil Code art. 159). Ask your lawyer to tell you the amount, the stage and the seller's other assets for each case that matters.

A company seller also needs a social-security clearance to sell property (Law 8.212/1991, art. 47, I, b). If one is required and missing, the law makes the parties and the officer jointly liable and treats the act as void (art. 48). Ask your lawyer how the local registry applies this.

Certificates on the property

IPTU and other city taxes. The buyer inherits tax owed on a property unless the deed records payment (art. 130 of the National Tax Code). The 1986 decree on deeds, 93.240, lets the buyer waive this certificate and answer for the debt (art. 1, §2). The city's certificate takes minutes in many places, and a waiver saves nothing.
Condominium. A seller must prove the building is paid up (art. 4 of Law 4.591 of 1964). If a debt slips through, it becomes yours, fines and interest included (art. 1.345 of the Civil Code). The condominium page lists what else to request.
Registry certificate of actions and charges. The notary must have it, no more than 30 days old (art. 1, IV, of the same decree). The seller must also declare in the deed any other actions and charges, on pain of civil and criminal liability (art. 1, §3).
The building. The habite-se is the city's occupancy permit. A new or enlarged building should also appear on the matrícula, and that entry calls for a social-security clearance on the work (Law 8.212/1991, art. 47, II). Old works and social-housing regularization have exceptions (§6). Unrecorded work means you buy the regularization with the house.
Federal land. The notary and registrar can't act without an SPU certificate showing the 5% laudêmio was paid, the transferor is current on that property, and the transfer is allowed (the 1987 decree-law on federal land, 2.398, art. 3, §2). The terreno de marinha guide covers this.
Rural land. The notary needs the INCRA registration certificate and proof the last rural land tax was paid (art. 1, III, b, of that decree). Larger plots need a georeferenced survey (Law 6.015, art. 176, §§3 and 4). Every rural property must be in the CAR environmental register (Law 12.651/2012, art. 29), and environmental duties pass to the new owner or possessor (art. 2, §2). Foreign non-residents also face the limits in the rural land guide.
Zoning. Ask the city what the plot can be used for, particularly if you plan to build or to run short lets.

Checking who is selling

The person on the record may not be able to sell alone. These are the usual cases:

Sellers and what they need
Seller	Rule	If you skip it
Married person	Spouse's consent unless absolute separation of property (Civil Code art. 1.647)	Open to annulment for 2 years past the end of the marriage (art. 1.649)
Parent selling to a child	Other descendants and the spouse must consent (art. 496)	Voidable, generally within 2 years (art. 179)
Heirs before partition	A co-heir's rights go by public deed (art. 1.793). A specific asset needs the succession judge's approval first (§3)	The sale has no effect
Co-owner of an indivisible property	The other co-owners may buy first on the same terms (art. 504)	A co-owner can claim the share
Landlord with a tenant	Tenant has first right on equal terms, with 30 days to answer (arts. 27 and 28 of Law 8.245/1991)	Damages. With a lease registered at least 30 days before, the tenant can take the property within 6 months of registration (art. 33)
Owner bound by an inalienability clause	A will or gift can bar a sale; sale needs court authorization (art. 1.911)	A sale against the clause can be attacked; it should show on the matrícula
Representative	Public power of attorney with specific powers (art. 657)	A forged power can leave you with nothing
Non-resident seller	Tax on the gain must be withheld by the buyer or the buyer's procurador (Law 10.833 of 2003, art. 26)	Your side may answer for it. See the selling guide

On a tenant, also note that a sale doesn't always end the lease. The buyer may give 90 days' notice unless a fixed-term lease has a clause surviving a sale and is recorded on the matrícula (art. 8).

Powers of attorney need particular care. Police in Goiás described a 2015 scheme: a stand-in pretended to own a vacant property and used forged documents to obtain a power of attorney from a notary, until staff doubted the man's age. Ask the issuing notary to confirm the power exists, and reach the owner on contact details you found yourself.

What no certificate shows

A clean file can hide these, so go and look, or send someone who isn't connected to the seller.

Someone else in possession. Ask who lives there and for how long. Long possession can end in ownership by usucapião, even against a registered owner (Civil Code arts. 1.238 to 1.242), and a contract buyer with possession can block a seizure without any registration (STJ Súmula 84). If the seller doesn't have the keys, find out why. The posse guide covers how that works.
A dispute the record hides. In Trancoso, a farmer's possession action over a 28-hectare plot halted part of the construction on a resort site, as reported in 2018, while the developer said its own papers showed a valid chain of possession. Neighbors usually know about this kind of fight first.
Boundaries. Walk the fence with the plan. If the stated area is part of the price and is short by more than 5%, the buyer may have a claim, which lapses after one year (arts. 500 and 501).
Hidden defects. The buyer has one year from delivery to claim for a hidden defect, or a year from discovery where it could only appear later (art. 445). Pay an engineer to look at an old building.
Risk from the ground. Check the official hazard maps, which the flood and landslide page explains, above all on a hillside or a river plain.
Public and protected land. Check a plot near Jericoacoara against the boundary of the 8,863-hectare national park, and ask about Indigenous land or a state protected area elsewhere. Public land can't be gained by long possession (Constitution, art. 183, §3; Civil Code art. 102), and art. 58 of Law 13.097 leaves public property out of its protection.

What each finding means

Findings and what usually has to happen before money moves
Finding	What it means	What usually has to happen
Hipoteca (mortgage)	A lender can force a sale	Written payoff figure; pay at closing; cancelation entered on the matrícula
Alienação fiduciária (bank lien)	The bank holds fiduciary title until the loan is paid (Law 9.514/1997, art. 23)	Same, with the bank's release; the seller can't transfer full title until then
Penhora (seizure)	A court took the property as security for a debt. You can't claim ignorance once it's on the record	Debt paid and entry canceled before you pay the balance
Indisponibilidade (block)	A court order bars sale	Court order lifting it. Don't sign on a promise that it will be lifted
Lawsuit noted on the record	Art. 54 notice to all buyers	Your lawyer reads the case; you assume you'll be bound by the result
Usufruct	Another person keeps the use, often for life	Cancellation, or a price that reflects it
Another promise of sale	Someone else may hold a real right to buy	Cancellation entered before you pay
Area or description mismatch	The record doesn't match the ground	Rectification at the registry (Civil Code art. 1.247)
Unrecorded building	The house isn't on the record	Habite-se, clearance and an entry, at the seller's cost or priced in
Enrolled tax debt	The presumption of fraud may apply	Debt paid, or proof that the seller keeps enough assets. Take legal advice

Two tools help when a finding can be cured at closing. A notary may now hold the purchase money in a separate account until the condition is satisfied (art. 7-A, §1, of Law 8.935, added in 2023). The contract can also keep part of the price back. Say an apartment sells for R$ 800,000 with R$ 27,000 in condominium arrears (R$ 1,500 a month for 18 months, before fines and interest) and R$ 15,000 in IPTU (R$ 5,000 a year for three years). The exposure is R$ 42,000, or 5.25% of the price, and you can pay those bills out of the price, with receipts.

Order, timing and cost

Before you offer. Matrícula, and a visit. Cost: a small fee set by the state.
Once the price is agreed. Seller and spouse: tax, court, labor, protest and block searches. Many are free and online. Court certificates vary by state.
Ahead of the promise of sale. Property: IPTU, condominium, zoning, permits, federal land. Your lawyer reports in writing.
Just before the deed. Pull the registry certificates again if more than 30 days old, because the notary needs them current. Check the matrícula once more on the morning of signing.
After the deed. File at once. The legal limit at the registry is 10 business days, down to 5 when it's a simple sale deed (art. 188), and priority dates from logging (Civil Code art. 1.246).

The legal time limits add up to days. What takes longer is getting the seller's papers, waiting for court searches in smaller counties, and curing whatever the check finds. Budget for your lawyer's time more than the certificates: legal fees are a matter of contract, so ask for a written figure that says which searches are included and how many names and cities it covers. A seller who was married, has moved cities and owns through an estate costs more to check than a single owner who has lived in one city for 20 years.

A clean check doesn't promise a clean future. It tells you what the records said on those dates, and it gives you evidence of good faith if someone challenges the sale later. So keep every certificate with your deed. They are also useful when you sell: buyers on the for-sale pages will ask you for the same things, and a lawyer can read a recent file faster. A seller getting ready to list a home can pull most of it in advance.

Checks that depend on the place

Seafront. The federal strip measures 33 meters from the high-tide line of 1831 (art. 2 of the 1946 federal-land decree), and the demarcation is still being completed, with a statutory target moved to the end of 2028 by Law 15.437/2026 (art. 12-C). Ask SPU about any seafront unit, in Pina, Ponta Negra or Geribá alike, even if the matrícula is silent.
Islands. Art. 20 of the Constitution gives coastal islands to the Union, leaving out those with a municipal seat while keeping marine land federal. Florianópolis and Ilhabela are seats, so the first question there is the seafront strip.
Old centers. In Olinda, Paraty or O Quadrado, ask the city and IPHAN, the national heritage institute, whether the building is listed before you plan any work.
Hill towns. In Petrópolis and on the slopes of Santa Teresa, the risk map matters as much as the registry.
Resort land. Around the Trancoso ridge and Lagoa do Paraíso, ask whether the plot has a matrícula at all, and whether it counts as urban or rural.

The brokerage directory lists firms active in each market, and a local lawyer will know which registry and court office covers a given street. Fees and certificate names differ from state to state, so use the closing costs guide for local figures.

Questions

What is a matrícula?

It's the property's numbered record at the local property registry. It holds the description, the owner and every right, charge and note in date order. Ownership is proved there and nowhere else.

How do I get a copy of a matrícula from abroad?

Order a digital certificate through RI Digital, the national registry platform. With the matrícula number, the registry must issue a full electronic copy within 4 office hours of payment (Law 6.015, art. 19, §10). If you don't have the number, the platform can search by the seller's CPF.

Is the matrícula enough since Law 13.097?

Legally it goes a long way: matters not on the record can't be raised against a good-faith buyer, and Law 14.382/2022 says court certificates aren't needed to show good faith. Enrolled tax debt, insolvency and usucapião sit outside that protection, so many lawyers still run the searches.

Which debts pass to me as the new owner?

IPTU and the property's other taxes, unless the deed shows they were paid (National Tax Code, art. 130), and, under Civil Code art. 1.345, condominium dues with fines and interest. Rural environmental duties also pass to the new owner (Law 12.651/2012, art. 2, §2).

How long are the certificates valid?

Registry certificates of actions and charges last 30 days for a deed (Decree 93.240/1986). The CNDT labor certificate lasts 180 days. Tax clearances usually state their own end date, so read each one, and pull the registry ones again just before signing.

Can my lawyer do the whole check?

Yes, and only a lawyer may give legal advice (art. 1 of Law 8.906/1994). Use your own lawyer, not the seller's. Ask for a written report that lists each search, the name and city searched, and the result. A site visit is still worth doing separately.

What if the seller has a positive federal certificate?

Read it. A certificate listing enrolled debts raises the presumption of fraud under art. 185 of the National Tax Code unless the seller keeps enough assets. A positive certificate with effect of negative (art. 206) can be fine, but ask what the debt is.

Does a title check cover a possession listing?

Only partly. Where no matrícula names the seller, the search changes to who owns the land under the possession, how long it has been held and whether it can be regularized. See posse and escritura.

Sources

Written by Lucas Andrade. Updated November 2026. General information, not legal, tax or investment advice. Ask a Brazilian lawyer about your own case.