Across the world, many NRIs face illegal possessions of their Indian property in India. In India, NRIs are mostly a soft target for encroachment as the property or land they own is normally inherited or bought for investment purposes, making it vulnerable to the illegal occupiers.

Many cases have been filed in court against the illegal possessions of Indian property by NRIs, the reason being that the property possessor is endowed with specific judicial protection even when he/she is not the genuine owner of an estate. These Indian laws were made to prevent any illegal actions of violence against the possessor of the estate. Although, these laws are exploited by illegal possessors or squatters to illegally acquire property, especially in the cases when the owner of a property (NRIs) are not present in India. Let’s go through striking ways of how squatters undertake illegal possession.

There are mainly two ways:

• Fake documents- This is the most popular way used by an illegal possessor to occupy an Indian property. By producing false or bogus documents, they threaten landlords that their legal right to the property has been deprived. In such conditions, either the squatter forces the owner to pay an amount to restore the legal right on his/her property or forces them to sell that special property on low and distressed prices.
• Tenant occupation– A situation, when a tenant illegally occupies a property and land by staying forcefully with the aid of some forged or poorly made contracts and affidavits it gets tough for a landowner to ask a tenant to leave. The Indian landlord and tenant law have strongly supported tenants in several cases, which has scurried the illegal possessors to take benefit of the particular laws further and mould them to occupy the property illegally. This works great for the estate whose landowner is out of the country.

All through the problem of illegal possession is not an easy task to overcome, there are some effective steps that an NRI can take to protect their Indian property from the squatters, which are listed as follows.

Ways to protect your estate from illegal possessions:

• Bona Fide documents- You require to have all original documents in proper order, which you should be ready to present anytime to prove your legal rights over your property and land. As it’s well said that precaution is always better than cure, having all your documents in proper order and place will make you legitimately stronger, and it will be challenging for a squatter to possess your property illegally.

Documents:

1. Deed
2. Mutation/ Intkal
3. Jamabadis
4. Copy of the will
5. Telephone and water bills
6. Original purchase agreement

• Post-purchase formalities- After purchasing or acquiring an Indian property, it should be the initial priority to complete all the formalities related to the estate. Make sure you should not overlook any small formality as it may become a major problem in the coming future.

Some of these formalities are listed below:

1. Get all the land record documents of revenue in your name.
2. Issue a public notice regarding your acquisition of the specific property in a local newspaper.
3. Get all the original certifications from all the offices of registration and revenue department.
4. Pay all the concerned taxes to the relevant authorities.

Even after all these documentation and formalities, there are few chances that your Indian property and land can encroach because as being an NRI you cannot be present in your native country forever. There are remarkable other precautions and steps that you can take respectively to make sure you have protected your Indian property in every manner. It can be little tedious yet surely to bear better results in regards to the protection of your Indian property.

These are the list of some steps that NRIs can consider other than the legal formalities:

• Make sure you always be in touch with the neighbours of your owned estate as they can inform you in a situation of any activity that takes place on your property or land.
• You must keep checking the property and land on your every visit to the country.
• Even when you have to issue a Power of attorney to your property lawyer, relative or friends make sure you give a Special POA.
• Build a boundary in case it’s empty land.
• If required you can take the legal advice of expert property management lawyer who takes care of all your property matters.

These were some precautions, and remarkable steps that an NRI should take to protect his/her property and land from illegal possessions or a person can hire a lawyer to take legal advice on the Indian property.