A person staying abroad can also sell his land in India by giving a Power of Attorney to a third person authorizing him the right to sell the land on his behalf. But in such cases, the Power of Attorney should be witnessed and duly signed by an officer in the Indian Embassy in his province. There is no legal support for Power of Attorney signed by a Rotary Public. Below are a few guidelines which need to be taken care of.
Agreement
Once all the financial matters are settled between the parties, it is better to give an advance and write an agreement. This ensures that the owner does not change his word regarding the cost as well as make a sale to someone else who offers more money. The agreement should be written in 50 rupee stamp paper. The agreement should state the actual cost, the advance amount, the time span within which the actual sale should take place and how to proceed in case of any default from either parties, to cover the loss. The agreement can be prepared by a lawyer and should be signed by both the parties and two witnesses. After signing the agreement, if one of the parties defaults, the other party can take legal action against him.
Registration
The land can be registered in a sub-registrar’s office, after preparing the title deed including all the relevant information. You could get the title deed written by a government licensed document writer. Even lawyers can prepare the deed, but the document can only be computer printed or typed, not handwritten. Handwritten documents can be prepared by only those who hold the scribe license.
A draft should be prepared before actually writing the document in stamp paper. Make sure all the details mentioned are accurate. If there is incorrectness in the document after registering, a secondary document with the correct details has to be registered and depending on the incorrectness, the registration expenses will be repeated.
Make sure that the deed is registered within the time limit mentioned in the agreement. Original title deed, previous deeds, property tax receipts, Torence Plan and two witnesses are needed for registering the property. Torence plan is a detailed plan of the property prepared by a licensed Surveyor, which will have accurate details of the measurements including width, length, borders, etc. This plan is needed only in some specific areas. For land costing more than five lakhs, the seller should submit either his Pan card or Form Number 16 during registration.
The expenses involved during registration include stamp duty, registration fees, document writer’s or lawyer’s fee, etc. The stamp duty will depend on the cost of the property and varies from Municipality to Corporation to Panchayat. In Panchayat, the stamp duty will be 4% of the cost of the land whereas in Municipality it is 5% and in Corporation 6%. Two percent will be charged as the registration fees. Document writer’s fees also depend on the cost of the property and vary with individuals. There is a percentage prescribed by the government as document writer’s fee and they cannot charge more than the prescribed limit. After registration, the registered document will be received after 2-3 weeks, from the registrar’s office. |