293. Nri cannot evict relatives

from his house in India

Q: Dear Mr VKChand My family is currently settled in USA for over sixteen years, we have a home in India in which we allowed our relative to live. Now we want to sell the house as we found out from reading your website that we can bring the money from the sale of the home to USA legally without any problems. The problem I am having is that my relative now refuses to move until we find buy them another place to live in India. What are the options we have, please help. We have all the documents that my wife and I own the house. Thanking you and waiting for your response. I am planning to go to Indian in a few days so please reply soon Sudhir A. Evicting a tenant in India is difficult enough, when it comes to relatives it is actually much more of a problem. While you have the law on your side, the problem in India when it comes to civil cases, is that the law is very slow and cases can take decades to be heard in court. If a person wants to they can actually use the court delays to their advantage and tenants make good use of this flaw in the justice system. The delay is probably caused by the volume of civil cases in India, the shortage of judges to hear so many cases and the use of delay tactics by parties who just want the case to carry on so the other party will come to a settlement eventually. Property dispute cases can drag on for ten, twenty or even forty years! The easiest solution in such matters, when it comes to NRIs who live overseas is to try and settle matters out of court. Seems unfair, but that happens to be the reality today. I would suggest that if you are going to India with the intention of contacting a lawyer, do take steps after carefully considering all scenarios of the route you are going to take. Lawyers will probably in the initial stages tell prospective clients that things will be done easily until they take your money and then they don't mind the case dragging on as they continue to make money. In case your wife is not going along, you should take a power of attorney from her to act on her behalf as you stated your property in India is jointly owned. While I can't offer you much help, there are some suggestions for those who rent out their property in India. 1. Some NRIs are tempted to allow relatives to live in their property, this may be to help a relative or perhaps they feel that they will look after the property for them while they live abroad. Times are such that people should avoid such situations. Property prices in India are rising and becoming unaffordable for many people, even honest relatives can have a change of heart when they have no where to go. I have heard of cases where relatives after fifteen or twenty years not only refuse to move, but demand large sums of money they claim to have spent to upgrade and maintain the property. These days, no one seems to care what other relatives or people will think of their wrong doing. Money seems to have washed away all sense of pride and dignity in some. 2. When renting property, don't sign a rental lease, go for the leave and license method as this is the fastest way to evict tenants who default and normally these agreements are for eleven months and renewed as required. Leave and license agreements should be drafted with care and MUST be registered to offer the landlord protection. 3. Don't accept cash payments for rent. A tenant who starts of paying rent in cash can simply stop paying and later claim to have paid cash and that they were never issued receipts because the landlord was trying to avoid paying taxes on rental income. People who have stopped paying rent for an extended time normally take this route. 4. Where possible, rent to a company rather than a individual. 5. Ensure that property tax bills are in your name, paid in time and keep receipts