PURSUING LAND SEARCH AND EVALUATION FOR NRIS

Kamaljit Singh and his sisters came to the Leicester office of the company with the need for what is apparently the most ‘basic’ service we offer – yet often ends up being the most complicated! Land Search – something that clients approach us with assuming that it is ‘just’ about locating a few documents in their native places, least realising that it takes tremendous effort to trace out the records of any property.

Kamaljit’s father bought a plot of land in 1971 and later, transferred one part of it in the name of his son, one part in the name of Kamaljit’s brother and one part in his own name. Since Kamaljit and his brother were both living in the US by then, their father appointed a caretaker for the property. Unfortunately, when Kamaljit came to our New Jersey office, he did not even remember the caretaker’s name. Kamal also had two sisters who were not interested in the property and had already signed documents handing over the property to their brothers.

Kamaljit’s requirements were - a thorough search of the location of the plot, the exact size and the extent of the share of the two brothers. In addition, he wanted a clear idea of what his father’s share was so that he could get that transferred into his and his brother’s name. Thankfully, since he did not have any point of conflict with his brother, he wanted the property issue settled so that they could eventually sell it off.

In his last visit to India, Kamaljit discovered the practical problems they would encounter since the caretaker showed no sign of vacating the property and pretended that he had no clue about what they were talking. Kamal and his brother were paranoid about having to travel every two-three months just to check on the status of the property affairs. It took a lot of effort for our team to convince the brothers that they wouldn’t have to travel back and forth to India.

What followed was a series of phone calls, emails, video calls, and Skype interactions with the base India office to explain the entire story and share details with the company lawyers. Technology and efficiency of the entire legal team made it possible for Kamaljit and Amarjit to sit in the US while their case was pursued back in India. It was easy for the brothers to have video chats and discussions with the legal experts of the company. The facilitation of e-mails to and from the office, messaging availability, easy access to all lawyers and regular updating from the office kept the anxiety levels of the two brothers to the bare minimum. 

The caretaker was taken to task for his unethical stance and he had to accept that he had been unscrupulous in his dealing with the brothers. Proper records of the entire property were traced out and the shares of the three men clearly demarcated on paper. In less than their expected time, Kamaljit and Amarjit became the proud owners of their rightful property.