Types of property scams?
In India, being an owner of a house is considered a milestone in one life. In simple words, ” if you own a house, you own everything”. Since it is the single biggest purchase one ever made. In consideration of that, every individual is overwhelmingly obsessed with the idea of owning a house someday or one day. Thus, it would not be inappropriate to state that every single person has been working their ass off to accomplish this milestone. Consequently, owning a house become pervasive and entranced in our society. However, getting one is not a kid-stuff.
First thing first, in the purchase of this regard, there could have an error and therefore it may lead to severe long-term monetary repercussions for the buyer.
Over a period of time, with a bombardment of things called ‘real estate. It is a property that has led and motivated people to do investments for a higher rate of return. As it involves a bright future growth prospect. The real estate business has brought about a revolution in the market in terms of investment, growth, earnings, and returns.
The real estate business is growing so are the scams linked to it. Although consumers today are quite vigilant and carry out each and everything with the utmost diligence, contrary to the fact they are still susceptible to scams.
As a buyer who is inexperienced, they should take extreme care while investing in real estate properties. Since the seller won’t take a second to disappear from your sight once he has all your money. They beguile the naive buyers through proposals of enticing offers because they are usually aware of buyer weakness that is hurrying in owning a house as soon and as cheapest as possible.
Moreover, real estate has an entire gamut from legal frauds and duplicitous operators to false promises. They rump up offers with double-dealing and approach innocent and inexperienced buyers and consequently, buyers find themselves at the mercy of these scams.
Let’s shed a light on some possibilities and scams where you as a buyer might fall prey to the hands of the underhandedness of a seller or an operator:-
1. HOODWINKING OF TITLE:- Commonly known as title fraud. In this case, the scenario is that they sell you the property under the pretense of being a power of attorney( POA). There is a significantly higher possibility of them approaching you dishonestly for conducting a purchase of a property. And this is a plain violation of the transfer of property Act, 1882 which regulates the law relating to titles over the property. In order to ensure that your title is free from any sort of duplicity do a title search on the registration websites of government websites as most of the registration departments of state governments provide all details pertaining to the past registration of the specific property.
2. FALSE PROMISES:- There are multiple ways builders can deceive you by making too good to be true promises. For instance, the seller is in a hurry, the property is inexpensive, the seller is abroad, etc. They often demand excessive token money from the buyers and that too quickly as possible.
3. UNWILLINGNESS TO SHOW THE PROPERTY DOCUMENT:- To ensure that the property is free from all sorts of legal tussles is truly an accomplishment however, developers often mischievously falsify the authenticity of the documents.
For Example:- underhandedness of title, claiming of a Power of Attorney, delaying in encumbrance certificate, denial of bank approval, and so on.
Documents are the prime evidence of ownership over a property, it is highly suggested to examine them with utmost diligence prior to investing your fund.
4. EXCUSES ON SITE VISIT:- This may be a red signal if it is happening frequently. Real estate investment for properties is the most convenient way of investing and expecting a higher rate of return, however, over a period of overheated time market has enabled frauds and scams to happen with buyers. To ensure they are not duping, you must go and visit yourself and find out you are dealing with genuine dealers, not two-faced ones.
5. The seller is abroad:- Another most occurring real estate fraud is that the seller is NRI and couldn’t appear in person because of such and such reasons.
Therefore, the so-called representative may falsely claim of being a power of attorney (POA), although it is a legal instrument of selling a property on behalf of an owner the same factor may involve being a false owner of a property.
Furthermore, this particular point was worth casting light upon since it is uncontrollably prevalent in the real estate world.
The above-mentioned points are the dark reality of the estate sector however, the onus of not falling prey to the hands of builders lies on you. Hence, do your research vigilantly and examine every single offer that is approaching you.