May I sincerely request you to read this post in its entirety. Apologies in advance for this very long post as I want to give as much information as possible in order to attain accurate legal advice, so please bear with me, thank you:
My father has 2 more brothers. My father and his brothers inherited several lands from their father (i.e. my grandfather). I believe, most of these lands have been passed on within my father’s paternal family through generations. My father and his 2 brothers amicably agreed and divided all the lands in 3 equal shares and to that affect they have written everything on stamp papers. However, each brother’s 1/3rd share of each land is not registered in their names yet, but each brother’s share, i.e. survey number of each land and each brother’s 1/3rd share in each land, have been entered on pattadhar passbooks that are held in each brother’s name. AP state government’s Land Records Online Portal is also showing each brother’s 1/3rd share in their name for every piece of land that they inherited.
My father didn’t make any will before he passed away. So, all the lands that he inherited are still in his name in his pattadhar passbooks and the same is showing up on the Land Records Online Portal in his name. Now, the issue/dispute is not with my father’s 2 brothers. I also have 1 more brother, who is elder to me and there are no issues/disputes between me and my brother. The issues are created by my mom. After my dad passed away my mom borrowed almost 1cr rupees in total of my personal money, which she hasn’t returned yet. In addition, my father wanted to build a family house on a piece of land that he inherited. Because I was young and easy to get a housing loan in my name, he asked me to take the housing loan in my name and I happily agreed to do that.
Also, because I was paying the housing loan, my father asked me on who’s name should he register the house. I said to him, either register it in his own name or in my mom’s name because they are my parents and family elders, and I would be very happy if the family home is in their name rather than in my name. So, my father registered the house in my mom’s name. However, my father promised me in the presence of my mom and brother that he will return all the money that I pay towards the housing loan as soon as he sells some land. He also promised that he will give me interest on the money that I lend him to pay the housing loan EMIs, but I said to him in strict terms that I don’t want any interest. I felt it is unethical on my part to take interest from my own father and mother.
A Rs40 lakhs housing loan was taken out in the joint names of my mom and myself, but I am the payer of the loan’s monthly EMIs. A year after the house was built, my father passed away. Till now, I already paid Rs 45 lakhs of my personal money towards the housing loan EMIs (this Rs45 lakhs is in addition to Rs1cr that I gave to my mom). Now, every time I ask my mom that I need the money that I paid towards the housing loan the answer that I get from my mom is ‘You gave to your dad so go and ask your dad’, who already passed away almost 10 years ago.
Moreover, my mom is also taking all the income that is generated from my father’s inherited lands every year from the date he passed away. I have never raised any issues with her about the share in that income as I thought she has her own expenses, and she needs income to live on. It is not the case that my mom doesn’t own anything, or she doesn’t own any land; she owns more than decent amount of land herself and she gets yearly income from her land too.
I have always put the interests of my father, mother and my brother ahead of my own interests. I am a married man with 2 little daughters and to-date I don’t have a house of my own and I am still living in a rented house with my wife and daughters. I lost my job due to the Covid pandemic and I am jobless now. I want to do something on my own and if there is any time that I need my money back then this is the time. However, my mom isn’t cooperating with me in any way!!
I am not asking her to give her money, I am asking her to simply return my money. My mom is elder to me, and she is my mom…she should be the person who should show fairness and justice in the absence of my father….she should be the person who should be resolving any disputes or issues that arise within the family rather than creating unjust disputes. Wish my dad were still alive because he is a very fair man and things would have been very different if he was still alive, but I can’t change that.
I want to know what my, my brother’s and our mom’s legal rights are in my father’s inherited properties? I am asking this because it came to my notice that my mom is devising a plan behind my and my brother’s backs and she is keeping both of us in dark. I neither want to take any court action against my mom nor create any disharmony within the family. I want to have a calm, dispute-less conversation with my mom and for that I want to know my legal rights and any advice on this matter would be greatly and deeply appreciated. Thank you all in advance for reading this very long post and look forward to receiving some advice.
