Do Words Like Caution, Care Bore You? Read This

The articles revolving property purchases use the word “due diligence”, “caution” and “care” generously. So much so that they often start sounding a little preachy and stretched, do they not? Of course, you are taking all due care to ensure nothing goes wrong. However, you can never take enough care when it comes to the matters of property, it would appear.

Sample this.

Sixty-six-year-old VVV Nachiappan and his legal heirs own a large 3,830-square foot house in Chennai’s posh Saligrammam locality. However, for the past five years, the senior citizen had been fighting a case against one PM Elavarasan who claimed ownership of the property.

In his plea, Elavarasan has claimed that he had purchased the property from his vendor one SN Padmanabhan and others for Rs 1.25 crore, and the sale deed was executed on April 17, 2013. Since the sub-registrar declined to register it, the matter was pending before the Inspector General of Registration, he claimed. Based on that argument, Elavarasan moved court, seeking direction against Nachiappan and his legal heirs to hand the property.

It was later proven that Elavarasan and Padmanabhan had connived to create a fake sale deed in the name of the former. Recently, the Madras High Court ruled in favour of Nachiappan saying that Elavarasan had forged the documents to prove his fake ownership. The HC also asked Elavarasan to pay Nachiappan Rs 1 lakh for the inconvenience caused to him. Terming Elavarasan a “land grabber” the HC ruled in favour of the senior citizen.

What does this teach you?

While the court ruled in favour of the rightful owner in the above-mentioned case, there is no denying the fact that the legal battle would have been quite taxing for the elderly man. While all the care is taken to ensure all legal documents are in place when you go to purchase a property, a situation as mentioned above might also arise in future, causing great hardship to the rightful owner. The above-mentioned example also shows that the rightful owner won the case solely based on the merits of the documents he held.

Since documents play an all-or-nothing role as far as property purchases are concerned, do not let the “boring” job of reading and verifying all related documents stop you from diligently pursuing the task. While you are at it:

*If you are a green-horn buyer, read and re-read all terns and conditioned mentioned in property-related documents. At every second reading, you will realise something new. Till you are certain that you have understood everything written in the papers, keep going.

*In case you find certain words and terms mentioned in the papers difficult to understand (legal jargons are sure to baffle you) , try to understand them. Take the help of a lawyer to be certain.

*The rule “when in doubt cut it out” should apply to the terms and conditions mentioned in the paper. The document must be a well-worded legal paper clearly stating each thing.