– Saj Shakir
Nagpur – One of the best investment today can easily be Property investment, because stocks and investments can take a dip depending on the market conditions, interest on investments can dip due to RBI guidelines etc. Gold price too has seen ups and downs in the fluctuating market and the downward trend of the Indian economy. But on the flip side “reality market especially in Nagpur is surely in its boom”, and the living testimony and proof of the above statement is the sky rocketing prices of the real estate/plots/land/flats and bungalows.
Owing to this Boom, Big brands into reality and properties have entered into Nagpur reality sector from metros like Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Bangalore and many other metros. These big brands realized the ever-increasing potential of land cost in Nagpur and also the spending potential of Nagpurians.
This is the reason that you are now seeing Big Brand Reality Giants Like Godrej, Kalptaru, Piramal, Mahindra, Lodha and many others into Nagpur reality market.
But do big brands promise you a safe and undisputed investment in properties? Can an Investor be 100% confident that his investment is secured and that the property that he has purchased from such a brand is not disputed? Can he sure that after initial investment of his lifetime savings into reality, he is not going to be cheated by the promoter (by way of selling a property that has legal matters in pendency owing to the ownership or other legal litigation)?
We tried to take inputs and comments from Godrej Properties Besa, after coming across a legal Notice that was published in the Nagpur Newspaper, which read (words to the effect) That the public /Investors in general are advised to not to enter into any land/plot/property related deals of Godrej Properties Besa site, since a part of the land of Godrej Properties BESA is under legal dispute, but we were denied any comments, stating that their head office and their legal team there needs to be contacted for any detail.
The complainant thru its legal counsel has put up a case for hearing stating that a part of the land that presently Godrej properties is presently promoting for sale has not been purchased legally and that Land is the property of the complainant and Not Godrej’s.
When we approached the advocate, Mr. Aniruddha Deo who is handling the case of the Complainant, for his comments and inputs and the reason for such a legal Notice, Advocate Deo expressed his inability to comment anything on that matter stating that the case was SUB JUDICE. In lay man terms he meant to say that the case that has been filed by his client is under consideration in the court of law, and he won’t be able to comment on any matter that has not reached a verdict and doing so is against his professional ethics.
When asked if properties that are promoted by Big brands are all clear title properties and would never have any legal litigations or claims of a third party, He suggested that any property that an investor intends to purchase is a matter of the due diligence of the investor. The seller will try to furnish all documents to the purchaser (investor) claiming that the property has a clear title, but the investor too has to be careful enough to get all those titles checked in all possible manners thru his own legal sources. Advocate Deo also said that there is always a marginal risk for the investor purchasing a property, but the risk can be eliminated by being absolutely certain (by getting all property related documents verified thru reliable sources or even by seeking legal assistance from professionals who can then initiate a title search and ensure that the property is a clear title property at the time of the purchase. He also explicitly pointed out that he was not generalizing his statement about all properties not bearing a clear title, but again reiterated that it’s the investors responsibility to check all details so that on a later stage there are no legal complications and hazels pertaining to the title of the property.
In a nut shell what we can gather from the legal Notice of the petitioner claiming and challenging that Godrej properties Besa is illegal and has intimated the public/persons, thru its legal notice dated 12/ 12/2022 to not to engage in any transaction of land being promoted by Godrej Properties Besa and anybody doing so will be in violation of section 52 of the Transfer of properties Act,1882 till the time the case is pending for hearing in the court of law and a final verdict is not reached upon.
Recently we came across a matter where in a document which was duly registered as a registered rent agreement with the Joint Sub Registrar Nagpur no 7 on 17/02/22 was verified online for its authenticity, however after several attempts on different dates the website came back with the same prompt that such a document was not found in their records.
Obviously if a document which is claimed to be registered with the revenue department of Maharashtra Govt and search for this documents authenticity on the Govt website provides no result and the document comes as unverifiable, it surely suggests that the document could be fake because these days mostly registrations of sale and lease of properties are done online, so evidently the details should be there on the Govt Website. But not going with the websites result as” document not found”, an application for the documents authenticity (which was not found on the website despite being registered) was made at the Joint Sub Registrar Nagpur no 7 office for a true copy of the said document.
Surprisingly after a weeks’ time the Joint Sub Registrar Nagpur no 7 office provided a duly certified true copy of the same document. If this is the scenario of the Govt websites and portals that can be used for authenticating Govt issued documents, there is a high probability that scams can take place in absence /incorrectness of such information online or maybe an innocent person may be put to a grave loss in absence of correctness or absence of info on Govt websites.
Quoting Adv.A M Deo, I would simply say due diligence is certainly required. Nothing is fool proof until you make it such.
