NRI Legal Services

This particular case that Manjit Kaur from Ferozepur brought to us, was a sad case of a general power of attorney being misused to indulge in illegal transfer of property in somebody else’s name. She came forward with this issue on behalf of her Uncle Gurmeet Singh who lived in Preston and unfortunately was living the life of a dependent since he was disabled. Worse, his son, Harjeet Singh turned a drug addict and was no longer under the control of his father – or for that matter, anybody else! However, Gurmeet was keen to do his best for Harjeet’s wife Manmeet so that she would have financial security for her life as well as for the upbringing of her children.   With this in mind, he thought of his property in Ferozepur and felt he could sell it off to build up a stable base for her. Since he couldn’t have been travelling back and forth to India, he got in touch with his old friend Gurjinder Singh and decided to give him a General Power of Attorney (GPA) to carry out...

NRIs often approach us with their misery regarding illegal occupation of property. The story takes the same form usually-they trusted somebody with their life’s assets and far away from their homeland woke up to the realisation one fine day that their property was under control of somebody else! Illegal occupation of property is one of the biggest threats for NRIs and will continue to loom large unless there is increased awareness of the precautions required. A piece of Property is one of the most effective ways that an individual establishes his status in a society. In fact an individual’s definition of himself gets affected to a large extent by his nomenclature in context of a particular piece of property. It carries even more meaning for NRIs since their property base is a major connection with their roots. For any individual, there could be four broad scenarios regarding his property. First , that he is the owner of the property and he resides in it himself. That would ...

Booking a property with a builder has its own share of anxieties and confusions. Toronto based Rohan Pandey was witness to something similar when his mother passed away and he found himself listed as a nominee in a group housing membership that she had in her name. Based in Gurgaon, near Delhi this society was supposed to have provision for a reasonably sized property with all basic amenities as part of the deal. Subsequently, he set about taking care of all pending payments. Meticulous to the core, he made all payments on time through proper channels and duly kept proof of the transactions too. Initially he was assured by the builders of a good sized piece of land. Gradually they shifted gear to provision of an apartment. In time, the commitment on that too seemed to waver with Rohan being given meaningless stories about some discrepancy in his nomination. Completely at a loss with the way things seemed to be working out, Rohan contacted the Toronto office of this company and sough...

Landlord-tenant disputes assume a different and more troublesome shape when the landlord in question happens to be an NRI . Distance from the location, inability to travel frequently to check on tenancy situations and the difficulty in finding trustworthy sources for solving these situations make the issue of landlord tenant disputes one of the biggest banes for NRIs. Keeping this in mind, the Punjab Government introduced an amendment in its ‘East Punjab Urban Rent Restriction Act, 1949’ in the year 2001. This was prompted by the awareness of the urgency and need in the case of NRIs to get their property vacated if they decide to come back to their hometowns. More often than not, NRIs who have rented out their properties with the intention of keeping the property safe while they are out of India, find themselves in a quagmire when it comes to getting the same vacated. Section 13 B, the Amendment introduced to the original Act, recognises all this and seeks to make it more conve...

One of the most crucial aspects of property issues is inheritance and subsequent requirements related to this. Inheritance logically happens through one of the two processes – either a state of natural succession or through the Will document that an individual makes. Natural Succession In case of a man, in case he dies without leaving a will (“intestate”), as a process of natural succession his assets stand equally divided between his mother, wife and children. If all these are absent then the assets would be inherited by the father, siblings and grandchildren. In case of a woman, if she dies without making a will her assets will get divided equally between her kids. In situations where unfortunately either the husband/child is disabled or the children are minors, then the properties would be passed on through a trust in the future. Will In situations where the Will is present, after the demise of the concerned person, the heirs would, in any case, be clearly sta...

Arbitration has established itself as one of the principal methods of dispute resolution over the years.

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