Hi respected lawyers!
I’ll get straight to the issue. My father has a plot of land in our native village which has be unattended for over 15 years. Recently we checked up on the land only to find that someone has built a house on it. The house has occupied only 700 sqft of the (2400 sqft) land. Moreover, the some parts of the house is built on the road area. The house is not occupied by anyone and upon enquiries we found out that the person who built the house is dead. We spoke to the wife of this person, explained to her that the house is partially built on our land and on the road area too. She admitted that it’s wrong but said she’s ready to give up the house to us if we paid a good amount. The house has not been occupied ever since it was built. One of the neighbor there said it’s because of the electric board refusing to give connection due to the mismatch in the land (but we haven’t confirmed it officially). The house is in a very poor state, the building is cracked, the windows & doors are broken. So we refused to pay any money since it was illegally built on our land. After a few months from meeting this woman, we decided to build a fence to protect our land and built a fence. During this process, we demolished one part of the wall of the illegally built house (but not he entire building). Now after seeing this, that woman has gone to the cops and had complained that we have demolished her house in which she was staying. She said she has some tax bills that can prove that the house is her’s. The cops hadn’t filed an FIR yet but they called us and asked us to come to the village’s police station. It looks like they’re trying to push us for an out of court settlement and milk us for money. Now I have some questions and if you could answer them for me and direct me, it’d be great!
- Does demolishing the part of the illegally built house in our property, an offense/crime? If yes, is this a criminal case? Or a civil case?
- I have all the documents that proves that the land is ours. How can I prove that she’s built the house illegally?
- What should be our next moves to handle this legally safe?
Thanks very much guys!