How NRIs can protect their Indian property

from illegal possession

The writer has posted comments on this articleDeepa Venkatraghvan | Oct 30, 2012, 06.03PM
IST
Bharat Prakash, a US citizen of Indian origin lives in Bellevue, Wisconsin. A few years back,
when Prakash's father took ill, he wanted to sell the family's apartment in Delhi and help move
his father to Bangalore where the extended family lived. "My mother had passed away a few
years back and my father started to keep poor health. My father lived in Delhi, but since there
was no family there, we decided that it would be best for him to move to Bangalore. So we
locked up the Delhi house and bought another house in Bangalore. Eventually, we wanted to sell
the Delhi house," Prakash says.
"But what we faced thereafter was a nightmare. Our house in Delhi became an easy target for
squatters and illegal occupiers. At one point, we had to position guards outside our house to
ensure no attempts of illegal possession could take place," Prakash says ruefully.
While this might seem like a scene lifted from the movie Khosla ka Ghosla, truth is that land and
unattended houses in many parts of India continue to remain susceptible to encroachment. While
land is an easier target for encroachment because it is usually bought for investment purpose and
left unattended for long periods of time, houses too, especially of old people with no primary
support or of NRIs tend to become soft targets.
And in most situations, the legal way of eviction is cumbersome and time consuming. P Sunder,
Managing Director of yourmaninindia.com, a TTK Services company explains, "The tenancy
laws in most states are skewed in favor of the tenants. Therefore, prevention is always better
than cure."
Nidhi Singh, Founder Director of legal consultancy firm nrilegalservices.com agrees, "A
possessor enjoys certain judicial protection against third parties even if he is not the owner. This
is in order to obviate unlawful acts of violence against the person in possession. However, illegal
occupants take advantage of the prevalent laws with respect to possession and many owners face
a lot of problem and harassment to get back their properties. The problem is worse in cases of
NRIs who are not physically present to look after the properties and forced to depend on locals to
look after the properties and litigation if any."
Let us then look at what steps you should take to protect your property if you are an NRI with
land or house in India. But before that a quick look at how illegal occupation takes place.
How illegal occupation takes place
There are two ways in which illegal occupation can take place. "First is when squatters prepare
forged documents and threaten you that you do not have legal rights to the property. Generally
these are thugs or people with connections who resort to these kinds of tactics to force someone

to pay a cost for redeeming their property and enjoying peaceful possession or to force them to
make a sale at a distressed value. Sometimes, this has even happened with the connivance of the
local revenue authorities. The second is where a tenant forcefully overstays and illegally
occupies your property in the face of inadequate checks and balances as well as poorly drafted
contracts," Sunder says.
How to protect
Broadly speaking, the basic rule to follow here is to ensure that you have all your documentation
in place to prove your legal rights over the property. "To establish right on the property the owner
or a person claiming possession must have documents such as the title deeds, jamabandis,
mutation/ intkal, copy of the Will (if any) where the property has been inherited by way of a
Will, original purchase agreement/sale deed, electricity bills, water bills and telephone bills
etc.," Singh says.
Bangalore based Advocate Lokesh Anjanappa adds, "First and foremost, after acquiring a
property (by means of purchase, gift, relinquishment, bequeathment etc.,) you MUST get all the
revenue records mutations done in your favor. If the property is inherited or has come down by
way of bequeathment (Will) and the title deed is not in your custody either because the same is
untraceable or lost, it is advisable to immediately lodge a formal police complaint to the effect.
Next, insert a public notice in at least two local newspapers about the ownership rights over that
particular property and obtain 'certified copies' of all such documents from the concerned
registering authority or revenue offices. Secondly, pay all outgoings and liabilities like
municipality/panchayath/property tax to the authorities in time."
In addition, you must be in touch with your neighbors so that they may be able to notify you in
case they notice any activity. You must also keep checking on the property, through friends and
relatives, at periodic intervals so that people know that the property is not a soft target. ","
Anjanappa says.
Having said that, Sunder lists some specific tips that you may want to keep in mind with respect
to land and houses.
Specific to plot of land
- With technology like Google Maps, you can keep a tab on your property from any place in the
world. Although it may not be real time monitoring, any major changes on your plot (temporary
or permanent structures) will get noticed sooner than later.
- Generally plots in gated communities with proper security are unlikely to encounter
encroachment. But even here, in some cases such as on the city outskirts, the chances of
encroachment cannot be ruled out. Open plots of land are more susceptible because they are not
particularly guarded against encroachment by anyone.
- If you have to give a Power of Attorney (PoA) to a relative or friend, make sure it is a specific
one
- Fence the property and put up a board
- If required, take the assistance of a professional service provider who can help you with
monitoring the property. Professional firms make periodic visits, fence the property and put up
boards. This sends out a strong message to possible encroachers that you are better off leaving
the property alone.

If feasible, bring up a small concrete construction in the property, which can be rented out to a
tenant under proper documentation (Rental Agreement/Lease Deed)
Specific to tenancy
- Have good tenancy agreements that protect your interests. Even if you must hire the services of
a lawyer, it might be well worth it.
- If you have appointed a tenant through a relative or friend through a PoA, ensure that you know
the tenant and have a copy of the agreement entered into. Sometimes people get deceived even
within the family or friends just because they aren't clear with the terms upfront. Where you
cannot afford to mix up your personal relationship with an obligation like this, avoid it all costs.
- Get your tenant registered with the local police station in places where such tenant registration
is either mandatory or is voluntarily accepted. You maybe harboring a terrorist and may not even
know about it.
- Promptly renew lease agreements on fresh terms as may be on expiry of contract or request
vacation.
- Check if your rental payments are coming through into your bank monthly. Checks can get
bounced and you may not even notice it for a very long time. This makes the tenant even more
secure that he/ she cannot be dislodged easily.
- Do your due diligence on the tenant prior to the tenancy, not after. Most people willingly accept
tenants whose past history is unknown because the person is willing to pay a few thousands more
than what others are willing to pay. There is no concept of credit/tenant rating in India, so most
people go by merely what they see and hear about the person.
- If you have old parents who have rented out their property or part of their property, then you
need to be extra cautious to ensure that they don't get taken in for a ride.
"Having said that, things have improved since the implementation of computerization of land
records and registration in various states. However, much remains to be done and it is better for
individuals to be careful," Sunder says.
"Once the property was occupied, it was a long haul for us. I would only recommend that NRIs,
who are not familiar with the way things work in India, take appropriate measures to protect their
property before it gets illegally occupied," Prakash concludes.