Q.1296 Life Certificate for

property sale - What is a life

certificate?

Question: Hi, I am travelling to Chennai to sell a property and I am US citizen. I read one of your response on Life certificate for property sale. One question I have is my agent India is given a format like doctor has to sign but provided by Indian consulate doesn't to do with doctor's signature. Could you please clarify what is the Life Certificate and how it will look like? Regards Answer: Basically a life certificate is a document that certifies that the person named on the certificate was alive when the certificate was issued. A Power of Attorney is null and void if the person who gave the Power of Attorney (POA) is no longer alive. For transactions that are conducted on the basis of a POA such as a transfer of property through a Power of Attorney from abroad where the person is not physically present at time of registration. The authorities may ask for a life certificate to confirm that the person who gave the Power of Attorney is still alive. As to what a life certificate may look like, I am posting a link at the bottom of this page to give you an idea of wht the document may look like. The source of the document is the Indian consulate, Toronto website. I assume life certificates issued by Indian consulates may have a similar format. However each consulate may have a different procedure so you need to check with the Indian consulate in your jurisdiction. In the United States you need to apply for a life certificate through miscellaneous services which requires downloading the miscellaneous application Form from the consulates website and submitting the Form with the required documents to prove identity. Check the consulate website for details and procedure. While life certificate for Indian pension purposes is issued free by the Indian consulates, there may be a fee if required for other purposes. Life Certificate for sample purposes: Click Here to view.