After my aged aunt died, her children went to the bank to open the locker that she was maintaining. They found that the only person authorized to open the locker was my aunt and she was no more. It took nearly five years for the bank to complete the formalities before the children could open the locker and get custody of its contents.
One may have come across a number of stories like these. Yet, people hold their investments, bank lockers, apartments, etc., in a single name. Some have family reasons – like not getting along well with other family members or not trusting others – buy property in India their sole name. However, heirs or survivors, who are likely to inherit these assets, have to go through a long and winding procedure to get the properties transferred in their name.
To make sure that your survivors do not suffer, you must ensure that you buy wherever permitted, all your properties jointly with someone. You may also nominate someone to receive a property after your death. Coupled with these actions, you must also make a will. The will should lay down in an unambiguous language how and by whom you want your properties to be inherited.
What does all this mean? Joint holding will facilitate transmission of the property. And a will left behind by a deceased person will fix who will succeed the property. You must understand buy property in India joint name and nominating someone to receive properties after death are not the same things as naming these persons in the will as the legal heirs to succeed you in the properties. When you nominate a person in respect of a property, like you do when you nominate a person for your apartment, all that you are doing is authorising the housing society to transfer the apartment in favour of the nominee. Nomination facilitates transmission of the apartment and authorises the society to transfer the apartment in favour of the nominee without requiring the society to verify who will be the legal heir succeeding the deceased in the property. A nominee does not become owner of the property merely by virtue of nomination; ownership of an asset is something that has to be proved in law. And such proof can be supplied by will. A nominee in law is only authorized to receive a property in his or her name, and if someone else is named as an heir as regards that property, the nominee merely holds the property in trust for the legal heir. It logically follows that if you want your apartment to be inherited by your wife or son you must name that person in your will as your successor as regards that apartment and also nominate that person as a nominee. Nomination will facilitate transmission of the apartment in favour of the nominee and the Will will vest in him or her the rights of an owner.
Always buy property in India joint names, make a will and nominate a person to succeed you in a property.
Courtesy: The Times of
No comments:
Post a Comment