NRI’s Property Snatched by brother
Hi,
I am US Citizen & also OCI ( Overseas Citizen of India )
There is a two bedroom house which was built with my money & is in my mother’s name in municipality & electricity & property tax bills are still in my mother’s name.
My father died very long time ago before the house was built so he is not in the picture.
The house was occupied by my mother, my sister my brother, his wife & his son & one bedroom was reserved for me when I visit & has my belongings in it.
After my brother’s marriage he started abusing psychologically & monetarily to me & my mother to the point where I couldn’t take it anymore so I moved out with my mother in another town because it was inhumane to put my Godly mother thru his daily torture. Then he started abusing my sister too so she moved out too.
Here is what I have in my possession & only very able team of advocates like the ones on this forum can interpret & make the best use of it. I am going to use my name as X and my brother’s name as Y.
My mother died in 2005 & left a will which she had registered in 1995 & I am going to quote it exactly what she said in the will.
“ I do not own any property of my own & the house was built with my ( X ) son’s money & we are all living in the house with my son X’s permission. Since it was X’s money I want to have him the entire house after my death “
My two sisters signed the will as witnesses & they have no objection against me getting the whole house & they do not want any part of it & are willing to make any kind of affidavit if one is needed just in case one or both of them expire.
She also left me a possession deed called “ Kabja Rasid “ in Gujarati basically declaring that house belongs to me.
Right after his marriage he also verbally promised to all family members that he would vacate the house as soon as he earns 1 to 2 Lac rupees to by a flat & my two sisters will testify to that fact.
The property is not muted yet.
Now my brother, his son & wife are in sole procession of the property & has broken into my bedroom & took procession of it too with my belongings still in it.
Now he has broken half part of the house except my & his bedroom & has started rebuilding the rest of the house with extra floor on top.
I am planning on going to USA within 2 to 3 months for at least a year or more so I would like you expert advocate to suggest the kind of actions that would not be met with a challenge from him & allow him to drag me in the courts here & delay my trip or warrant me to come back to India should he take some kind of legal action. He has plenty of money to buy the best lawyer.
Here are my questions & what I want accomplish. I would be very grateful to a team of very able advocates on this forum to suggest necessary steps at this moment keeping in mind my trip to USA.
(1) How can I immediately & permanently stop him from rebuilding?
(2) I want my bedroom back immediately & remove his son & his belongings from my bedroom & I want to lock my bedroom & prevent him from breaking back in it again.
(3) Me & my one sister until now had the keys to enter the house but he has changed the locks so I want the new keys of locks he has changed so we can enter the house at any time.
(4) If possible I would like a court order asking him not only to stop building but restore the house to it’s original condition if that is possible.
(5) Is there a statue in Indian law that would protect an NRI like me & expedite my case ?
(6) Can I take any action that would hold him to his promise to all of us of vacating the house in 1994 right after his marriage ? Till my mother died, all of us asked him to vacate the house several time because he had plenty of money to redecorate the house, having parties, owning two cars, vacationing frequently & now also owns a 3-bedroom apartment which he has rented out.
(7) I am a senior citizen living in another city & would prefer not to be dragged to frequent court dates & disrupt my trip to USA before leaving & after I am there.
I will proceed with mutation process & entering my name in municipality & evict him at a later date.
Thank you all & looking forward to a plan by a team of expert lawyers on this forum.