NRIs: Know your legal ownership rights on the jointly owned parental property back in India.

Ownership of property can either be in an individual’s name or joint name. Joint property ownership means there is more than one owner of the same property. The persons mentioned in the title deed as joint owners are co-owners of the property.

In joint property ownership, all the co-owners share the property. It is essential to know your legal ownership rights in the jointly owned property.

The family members, parents, brothers, sisters, or spouse, any of these can own the property jointly with each other. Even a non-family member, a friend, or a business partner can also be a co-owner.

In joint family property, all the family members have a joint interest in the said property. The joint family property is co-owned by all the family members who have jointly acquired the property. The joint family consists of parents, cousins, siblings and children. Children also enjoy right in the family property as a legal heir. A child is a legal heir to the parental property. But as a legal heir, he is not the co-owner. The child may have the right to the ancestral property as a legal heir, but his share is a subject matter of inheritance laws. It depends upon the personal laws and the statutory laws of the State.

However, the parents may like to own the property with the children jointly. It becomes easy for parents to financially manage the asset with the children’s support in joint property ownership. Also, the eligibility increases to avail a large amount of loan for buying the property.

NRIs may prefer joint ownership in parental property. The primary benefit is that the property is taken care of by the parents in their absence.

The joint ownership of children and parents in parental property can be in the form of:

Tenancy in common

In such joint property ownership, there is no right of survivorship. When one co-owner dies, the share in joint ownership does not go to other co-owners. But the same belongs to the legal heirs of the co-owner.

Joint Tenancy

In joint tenancy, when one co-owner dies, his share passes on to the surviving co-owner. It is not recommended for family members as they would like to secure their kids’ inheritance rights after their death, and it is not so in this kind of joint ownership.

In joint tenancy, on the death of the parent (co-owner), his share will automatically go to the surviving child who is the co-owner. If there are siblings who are not co-owners with the parent in this joint property, they do not get any share after the parent’s death.

Unless stated explicitly in the document of property, the law presumes tenancy in common between the co-owners. It is advisable to disclose the nature of the ownership in the title document to avoid legal hassles later.

Know your legal ownership rights:

The property rights in India are governed by personal laws and statutory laws. However, in any joint ownership, every co-owner has certain rights:

• Right to use the property.
• Right to enjoy peacefully the possession of the property — All co-owners must take care that their possession is not disturbing for others.
• Right to demand partition of the property — Any co-owner can demand partition of the joint property. Once there is a partition, the joint nature of the property comes to an end.
• Right of share in the benefits flowing from the property — All co-owners have shared in rental come; profit earned out of the property, or any compensation received for land acquisition. Each co-owner’s share depends either upon his stake in the property or any other mutual agreement among the co-owners.
• Right to sell or mortgage his undivided share — A co-owner can sell or mortgage his share. He may need the consent of other co-owners or may do without it, as permitted in the ownership document.
• Right to restrain other co-owners from alienating his share
• Right to share the expenses incurred for the property maintenance — The co-owners must contribute proportionately towards the money spent on the property’s maintenance.
• Right to share the charges paid towards the property — All the co-owners must share the charges or dues paid towards the property by anyone of them.

The best thing to know about your legal ownership rights in the joint property is that every co-owner has the right like an owner only. The only limitation is that the right can be exercised keeping in mind the interest of other co-owners.