Bharat Rakshak

Our inheritance laws mixed with slow judicial process that can sometimes take upto 25 yrs to decide on a case is a deadly concoction to a non-political real estate buyer but a sweet nectar for real estate mafia, politicians and goons. The inheritance need not be direct either ( ex : two sons contesting over a already sold property once owned by their deceased father) but these complications can arise even with hereditary properties with multiple generations in the middle . Dealing in land in India is not for the faint hearted, when it comes to property protection and transparency we are probably 100 yrs behind developed countries. Just as an example, it has taken me over 6 months and countless trips to the BDO and muncipal office to just to get my property khatha (property record/revenue record) converted to a e-Katha (electronic land record). This is something the government should be doing themselves, but no, they want the owner to spend a year and bribing thousands of rupees to everyone in the muncipal office just to get the revenue document converted to a electronic format. How bad is the process you ask ? In a tier 3 town, a 60x40 land's e-Katha conversion will take 3 to 6 months and about Rs 25,000 in bribes, the govt charges are a mere Rs 600 !

It is really shocking how many property buyers don't get legal due diligence done and instead rely on bank's assessment. In the past, I had to pass on "attractive" opportunities because my lawyers found issues with the title when they went beyond the obvious. But other buyers quickly lapped it up after I rejected.

This is especially true if you are buying in the outskirts, which used to be farm land a while ago. Some of these I encountered are: grant land which shouldn't be sold for certain years, PTCL Act property, village map of long ago showing a nala/raja kaluve or lake bed nearby or within, survey number suddenly changed but no mutation register (?) available...

If you are buying property, just go to a good lawyer and get a comprehensive check done. The cost is nothing compared to buying, and it's worth decades of peace of mind.