Parttion deed/suit: guidance requested

Dear Sir/Madam

Kindly assist.  I am a victim of a cruel dysfunctional family in India.

Brief background & summary:

My father died in 2010 without leaving a will or any legal procedure for his 2 storied self-acquired house in India, leaving behind 3 legal heirs, myself, the daughter, my mother and my brother. Mother and brother live in father’s house in India. Because of the nature of my job I am required to live abroad most of the time in a year.  

I could not live in that house when I went back permanently in 2010 due to the unbearable and ceaseless mental torture and ill-treatment from brother and his wife. They have been misbehaving for last 15 years with me as they simply wanted to make it impossible for me to survive in my father’s house. I do not have a family of my own. Brother has arranged to live downstairs with his wife and kid, occupying much more than 1/3^rd of the entire property while widowed mother live upstairs and I share upstairs with her when I am in India. Exit entrance is common. Tried to amicably arrange for respectful independent arrangement with separate exit entrance for my and brother. He rejected all my suggestions and requests and he is aggressively controlling the whole show.   There is a back entrance exit which he refuses to use with some stories and is not allowing me to make my own separate exit entrance at the front of the house saying that will damage the house. But they are secretly planning to construct another room in the ground floor unused back portion sometime later, without consulting me or taking my approval, assuming I am also an equal co-parcenor in the house with equal share and equal rights as him. He & his wife is very abusive, aggressive, mean, extremely unkind and rude to me.

No legal partition has occurred yet.

Recently I came to know that as per current living arrangement he has kind of agreed to make a family partition deed legally separating top and ground floor,– top in my name and entire ground floor in his name which is Ok with me , (except that he cannot construct another room in a land that is outside the walls of the rooms he is currently using at the same time, prohibiting my freedom to make another exit entrance at the front and disagreeing to use the existing back entrance after some renovations) but not agreeing to separate entrance arrangement for some reason.

Questions:

1. 1.       Mother gave me a gift deed in 2010 saying she is giving me 1/3^rd of her undivided share of first floor based on current living condition, plus with my own 1/3^rd share, I get 2/3^rd of the property – the gift deed is registered. Is this deed valid and can be used to my favor?
2. 2.       Should I go ahead and agree with the floor partition (minus the exit entrance issues), if yes, kindly recommend what all should be included in the deed in order to make it a document without any encumbrances
3. 3.       Do 3 of us need to sign the partition document or just me and brother saying mother will continue to live upstairs till her end?
4. 4.       Does the partition agreement deed need to be registered
5. 5.       How can I apply for separate title of the first floor in my name
6. 6.       Can I file a partition suit thereafter, praying for separate and independent access to the house and approximately how long will such case take?
7. 7.       This would be a civil case so do I need to attend hearings? That will be very tough as I am not in India most of the time
8. 8.       Can he construct a room in the empty unused garden space downstairs without my approval – if they do, what measures can I take
9. 9.       How else can he harm me?
11. .   Anything else I need to do or be aware of?

I will really appreciate your kindest help and guidance as I am being treated terribly and living with acute mental agonies, suffering and fear.

Kindly let me know if you have any questions in order to advise!

Thanks & Warm Regards

Ms. Faith.