CHENNAI: We have two 5 cents of the vacant plot (land brought by our father) in a Nagar layout (not a registered layout) in a village near Tirunelveli. The land is in the name of my father and he has given it to us, his two sons. Both of us are paying the land tax and no one has claimed the land so far. My father has written a ‘registered will’ stating that one property to each of his sons. Our father and mother are no more. Now, when we are trying to change the property in our name we have been asked to get legal heir certificate or documents from all the other siblings of the family, We have three sisters and we think they may ask for it. we are in possession of the sale deed of the land, father’s death certificate, bill of the tax paid. How can we change the property in our name without our sister’s help? — J Kumar
If you have received the property from your father by a registered will, you can approach the local district court for getting a letter of administration of the property. Then you are at liberty to get the records registered in your name. Any legal heir certificate from the local Tahsildar will certainly contain all the sisters' name and it may not be of any use in changing the revenue records in the absence of their consent for the same.
I am a member of a Flat Owners Association registered under the Society Registration Act since October 1, 1998. The association manages 176 flats ranging in sizes from 843 sq ft to 1,662 sq ft. Maintenance charges are collected on a per flat basis irrespective of the size of the flat. On protests from the smaller flat owners, the Association invited three legal opinions all of which advised it to follow the provisions of The Tamilnadu Apartments Ownership Act for levy of maintenance charges. The association ignored the advice. Three of us, smaller flat owners, started paying the charges on a per sq ft basis as per the said act and based also on one of the provisions in the registered agreement between the builder and each of the 176 members, specifying each member’s share in the property. The difference between the demand and our payment on per sq ft basis is shown as arrears in the annual accounts of the association. To date, the association does not appear to be inclined to take legal action to recover the claimed arrears from us, even after my prodding it to do so. It appears the association’s demand will be kept open indefinitely. What is its implication for me? — L Gopalakrishnan
In the absence of a general body resolution of the association decided to change the levy of maintenance charges on the proportional area basis, you cannot unilaterally pay on your own. The Apartment Owners Act does not provide any such individual right.
During my short stay at Mumbai in June 2018 my pension paying officer i.e. DPDO, Chennai, sent a letter to my Chennai address and the postman brought it to deliver it to me on June 11 in my absence. My neighbour redirected it to my Mumbai address as requested by me. The Mumbai Speedpost office received it on June 14 and even without taking the effort to deliver it to me, they simply returned it to the sender who received it back on June 15. I sent many emails to postal authorities at Mumbai and spoke over the phone to investigate the matter but there was no reply from them for a fortnight. Then I warned them of legal action and there was some improvement but finally, they informed me that it was returned due to incomplete address/PIN etc. But it was clear that they ascribe some reason to get rid of this issue as they might have replied so earlier if it was true. I, therefore, sent an email to NCDRC requesting them to order Mumbai postal department to pay me `1,000,000 as compensation for causing mental agony and inconvenience to a senior citizen of 70 years who is also a diabetic. There is no reply either from Mumbai postal department or NCDC. Is it necessary to file a complaint only at Mumbai district consumer forum or NCDRC will admit my complaint? — KS Srinivasan
For the negligence or indifference of the postal department, it will be difficult to sue them and get any compensation. You seem to be getting of some fancy amount whereas by any such exercise you will be spending your precious resources and tiring yourself in this old age. Just treat it as a bad dream and forget any course of action against the postal department.
Justice K Chandru is a former judge of the Madras High Court
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