Your property-related legal queries answered by S.C. RAGHURAM, Partner, RANK Associates, a Chennai-based law firm

I purchased a flat on the outskirts of Chennai and registered it in Feb 2015. The property is a joint venture between the builder and the land owner with a share of 79:21 respectively. Of the 21 per cent share, the land owner agreed to sell 7.7 per cent to a partnership firm (which is a group concern of the builder), through an unregistered sale agreement. The payment has already been made to the land owner. The partnership firm entered into a marketing agreement with the builder to sell the shares of their flats. The land owner had given a Power of Attorney (POA) for 87 per cent (79 per cent for builder’s share and 7.7 per cent of partnership firm’s share, rounded off to 8 per cent) to the builder with power to sell.

I booked an apartment on the basis of this 87 per cent power and made 90 per cent of the payment hoping to register it in January 2015. My flat comes under the partnership firm’s share.

The construction and sale agreements were drafted on the basis of 87 per cent POA and I obtained a loan from the bank as well. But a week before our proposed registration, the builder informed us that our registration would be postponed without mentioning the fact that the POA was cancelled by the land owner. After 12 days, the land owner registered two POA documents favoring the builder with different per cent of right (earlier 79+7.7 per cent).

I also noticed that preceding to my flat’s registration, the builder had already sold 60.41 per cent share of UDS with the earlier POA of 87 per cent.

The sale deed is executed with 7.7 per cent right of POA after conveyance of 60 per cent share of UDS. Construction agreement drafted on the basis of earlier POA’s 87 per cent share is also registered with this 7.7 per cent right of POA. The builder also confirms the left over UDS with them.

We approached the builder regarding this and asked them to rectify our sale deed duly signed by the land owner for our clear title. He says he will not provide any additional information and when I requested for a cancellation, he advised me to sell the property after settling the remaining 10 per cent payment or he would deduct 20 per cent of the refund.

Chennai

The land owner will continue to hold the land and will be treated as owner irrespective of any agreement he may have entered into during the course of the transaction. Though subsequent buyers would be bound by the terms of the agreement, any conveyance has to be done by the land owner or his duly authorised POA. The POA agent can act only within the scope of the powers granted to him under a duly registered deed of POA.

In your case, you have not stated as to when the sale deed was registered in your favour and whether the extent conveyed is duly covered in the deed of POA as on that date.

The documents have to be gone into in detail to ascertain whether the POA agent was duly authorised to deal with the extent conveyed in your favour. If the undivided share conveyed in your favour is proportionate to your apartment and within the scope of the POA, your title would be in order. Otherwise, the land owner can ratify the sale by executing an affidavit to this effect. If the undivided share of land is irregular, you have to take it up with the developer to set right the defect by the land owner. You can approach the Consumer Redressal Forum if there is deficiency in service on the part of the developer.