For clarity on niggling doubts
by: Guest
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The realm of real estate can evoke powerful dreams, while at the same time being eerily frightening the closer one gets to the prospect of owning a property. For, it is not unusual for worries to fill the head, be they about the genuineness of documents or legality of title, guideline value or tax implications.
“In real estate transactions, there are cases where the buyers are furnished with false documents or shown wrong property, especially vacant plots,” cautions C.H. Gopinatha Rao in ‘Dealings in Real Estate & Housing’, a book that discusses the many facets of real estate deals.
Rather than leave things to the imagination of first-time buyers, the author goes into the nitty-gritty of property deals, because misses can be costly. “If the property is a piece of vacant land and is an agricultural land and not earmarked by proper boundaries, it is difficult to identify the property,” he writes.
Wrong identification
There have been cases of wrong identification where banks advanced loan and realised their mistake long after, only when they decided to auction the property to recover the dues.
To avoid such hassles, Rao’s counsel is that you “approach the Village Administrative Officer and utilise his services in identifying the land boundaries, extent and the ownership details.”
The slim volume provides clarity on various niggling doubts that property buyers generally have. Such as, whether a person can nullify the sale by executing and registering a cancelling deed! Any such practice vitiates the public policy with regard to registration, argues the author. Because “registered sale deeds executed duly have some sanctity and people at large rely on them.”
Inheritance
A chapter on ‘inheritance’ begins with this interesting narrative: “Ramaseshan, a company executive, purchased a house plot and constructed a residential building in 1975 out of his own earnings and was living there. He died in January 2006 intestate leaving his two sons and his mother. He had two sisters Kamala and Vimala.
In June 2006, his mother passed away. When the two sons decided to dispose off the house, the advocate of the prospective buyer wanted their aunts Kamala and Vimala to sign the sale deed as vendors. The sons were surprised as to how the aunts get a share when the property was acquired by their father with his own earnings.”
The author explains how, as per the Hindu Succession Act, the mother gets a third share of the property in this situation. “The mother leaves behind her two daughters and sons of the deceased son. Hence her one-third share is to be divided among the four, and thus Kamala and Vimala both get one-twelfth share each.”
Reverse mortgage
To senior citizens, the chapter on reverse mortgage should be of interest. The National Housing Bank ( www.nhb.org.in) has formulated ‘operational guidelines’ for Reverse Mortgage Loan (RML).
When answering a question in the Rajya Sabha on August 21, Pawan Kumar Bansal, Minister of State for Finance, said that RML enables monthly payments that supplement the income of senior citizens during their lifetime when their income sources are generally restricted/limited and show a marked fall as compared to the period when they were in active occupation.
“RML obviates the need for senior citizens to meet financial needs by selling their house and perhaps moving to a smaller house possibly located far away, to raise money,” he said.
Also, that the scheme “helps in unlocking the wealth otherwise locked in a residential asset,” and enables the old to meet “expenses like health care and other needs which are generally expected to rise with ageing.”
However, Rao is of the view that a thorough counselling on the limitations and opportunities of reverse mortgage would be useful. “At times, a word with the heirs before signing up for a reverse mortgage scheme might also help.”
Handy guide.
Feedback to dmurali@thehindu.co.in
About the Author
D. MURALI
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