Take precautions before buying land

Buying land is not a child’s play Are you planning to buy land in order to build your dream home ? Did you know the kind of precautions you are required to take before sealing the deal ? More often than not, it has been seen that while buying the land,people hardly know about the issues involved in buying some clean land. Sadly in the absence of lack of knowledge, many people trap in the hands of shady characters and suffer huge losses. There was a news item published in most of the papers recently that shady people sold the Army land in Faridabad to innocent people and earn huge sum.
As the realty scene is booming in NCR, many dubious people are on the prowl to loot people. The land and building racket department of Delhi Police’s economic offences wing (EoW) has seen a 40 per cent rise in land grabbing case by impersonation in the past year. In Gurgaon too, at least 50 cases of fake deals were registered in 2006 as against 82 in Delhi. In 2009, nine complaints of land and building scam have been received at EOW in Delhi while the figure was 58 in 2005.
Needless to say that people invest in land either for constructing their dream home in the near future or for speculative gains. “There is nothing wrong in this kind of thinking, but there is urgent need to be extra cautious while investing in land, as land dealings are complicated and the authorities have little control over the haphazard development of residential layouts,” S.K.Gambhi, an eminent lawyer.
If you are planning to buy a site, select a layout which is either approved by the local authorities and select the site with a particular number approved for sale. Collect copies of property documents and various approvals obtained by the developer and engage an expert lawyer to verify the title to the property.
If the layout is large, the developer may not part with copies of property documents and in such a case, collect copies of project approval letters issued by banks and Home Finance Companies (HFCs). Engage the services of an advocate for verifying the original title deeds to ensure that the developer has not mortgaged the property for getting project finance. If project finance has been obtained, engage your advocate to verify original title deeds at the particular bank/HFC which has granted the project finance. Ensure the release of the mortgage on the property selected by you, before sale deed is registered in your favour.
As fake documents and fabricated approvals are in circulation, engage your advocate for visiting DC’s office to verify the approvals obtained by the developer.
Select a layout which is fully developed, even if the cost is 10-15 per cent more as compared to layouts under development, as this will avoid ambiguity whether developer will be able to complete all developments, as promised, within the specified time-frame.
Don’t get carried away by the attractive price quoted (may be up to 50 per cent less as compared to neighbouring layouts approved by the local bodies and assurances for approvals in the near future by a developer who has developed the layout with ‘short-cut’ measures as explained above and select only an approved layout.
Talking about capital, it is said that the target areas are high value properties in posh South Delhi colonies. The main victim in these cases is the person who buys the property and not the bonafide owner. As police officer  explains: ”The owner gets the sales deed based on forged papers cancelled. Though he faces harassment, the true loser is the person who has bought the property from fake owners. He is forced to return it and he loses his money.”
All said and  done, it is not a child’s play to buy land. Be careful and take the service of some realty expert to clinch the deal.
Added By : SS