NRIs are often caught in situation and circumstances of Property and Land Disputes in India where they seek legal advice. Property Fraud is despair for NRIs as they are unable to constantly review the present status of their land and properties in India. It can become a mental as well as physical hassle as it involves travelling to India more frequently which they can’t always manage.
If you are among NRIs having property in India, you have to be more proactive in approach. You have to manage your property yourself, in whatever system or pattern you adopt. You can either have more frequent visits to India or appoint an Advocate to consistently report to you.
Vulnerability to Fraud
As a precautionary measure, property should be mutated and transferred in your name and should not remain in the name of people who have passed away. It is necessary in order to keep the property in question away from people who want to illegally grab or acquire or take over the possession of properties which are left unattended for long slovenly.
The real estate market has been booming, to say the least. Even though a lot has been handled and managed maturely now, still frauds are equally prominent. There has been an increase in NRIs seeking legal service from experts to sort out their property matters.
People looking to buy/sell houses or any other property are in dissension of entering into such transactions because of fear of trickery and deceit. There exists an entire nexus operating between officials at various levels, property dealers and their legal representatives, in one way or the other affecting the entire system. Such system of fraud makes NRIs even more vulnerable to prevalent property and land disputes.
Impersonation as NRIs
There are a number of ways by which a fraud can occur in sale of property, one of the most common ways is Impersonation of the NRIs who is buying or owns the property and is selling.
There have been frequent cases where people impersonate as the NRIs and carry out transactions. There are such people who especially search and earmark properties owned by NRIs. Then they make fake identification proofs by fraud, impersonate themselves as the NRIs, and sell off their properties fraudulently.
At some point in time or the other, NRIs in every part of the world have experienced these types of frauds, be it any state of India. Particularly, it has been more frequent specifically in the state of Punjab & Delhi.
Forgery of Documents
There have been various instances of their land being occupied illegally by people claiming to be relatives, friends or agents. Fraudulent sales are carried out by making fake documents for the sale of property. Forged Documents including even Power of Attorney papers present an obstacle to NRIs trying to monitor their property, specially if interested in the sale of property.
Property Fraud is a result of misuse of Power of Attorney documents. It’s very common to see NRIs being baffled with the help of fraud Power of Attorney. NRIs more often than not, become vulnerable to malpractices in cases of buying and selling of property because they lack time, knowledge or support of appropriate legal services for such property and land disputes.
Forgery of documents like Title Deeds or Wills is another cause of NRIs having to undergo this problem of illegal sale of their property. Fabrication of legal documents of property leads to fraud in buying and selling of property. It has been seen commonly that NRIs have been deceived of property worth huge amounts for want of awareness about the correct and proper way of making documents and preventing forgery.
What can be done?
While the number of property and land fraud cases has been substantially high, it doesn’t mean that there is no legal respite for the victims of such frauds. Document forgery, Illegal sales, property fraud can all be successfully challenged and the rightful owner’s rights can be restored. It is here that our legal services can help you sort out these property and land dispute matters.
