Inheritance

File a suit claiming partition of the property against the brother.

You can show cause of action any time here. So limitation act will not hinder partition suit.

Whenever you are ready to file a case against him, issue a legal notice on behalf of all siblings to the brother calling upon him to divide the property and give share to others. Depending on his reply, you can go to court and file suit for partition against him.  

Thank you Dr. Vishwanath,

My father just passed away in March 2013.  We will file the suit in the by November 2013.

Do we need to wait for the will.  Maybe there is a will but brother does not want to disclose it.

We believe the property has been transferred to his name without our knowledge.

Thank you.

Where can I find a good lawyer in Chandigarh.

Thank you for you help.

If the will is there and he is silent about it, then you have no option but to file a suit for partition. If he has any will, he will produce in the court. Then he has to prove the validity of the will in the court.

You said in the query that he is claiming all property.

Can you find out and tell if the brother has got his name mutated to the property in the development authority.

If he has got his name entered in the government records, you can find out on what basis he has done it. You can get a copy of such documents.  

Thank you for being so responsive.

We are under the impression that he has had the property transferred to his or his son's name when my father was still around.  My father said that the brother pressured him into it.  I have a letter from August 2012 about it.

But we are not sure as we have been excluded from everything.

There is a servant living in the house and no one else is there.  The servant has been instructed by my brother not to let anyone into the house. 

I asked for the will and my brother said "what will, there is no will" so if now produces it, is it valid.  We have no knowledge as all these incidents have occurred after my father's passing.  My father said that he took care of us in the will.

I think the will has been withdrawn or destroyed.  The lawyers are saying we need to get the date on the will before they can find the will.

I am overseas, I will go back to follow up on this matter and need a good lawyer for this purpose.

I think my brother got an arrangement with the other brother, but the two sisters were just left out of the whole arrangement.

Thank you.

Sincerely

Manjit

Two things need to be done. First, as you state that property transferred in the name of brother or his son, then you can apply in the concerned government department of your place and give property details and find out in whose name it is standing. If it is standing in brother or his son name, then you can also get details of on what basis property was mutated in their name.

Second, immediately file a case for partition against him making all the siblings as party.  

Hi,

Thank you.  We will find out the information.  I live overseas and my other sibling is ill and brother (who has passed away) 's family is not equipped to do this.

So I will come in November to file.  However, need a lawyer.  How do we get a decent lawyer.  Whoever, I talk to from here does not want to follow up.  There is silence after the initial contact.

Thank you.

You have to come to India and meet a good civil advocate of your area and handover the case to the advocate.  

Manjit @ As a passer-by suggestion, check with your brother before you proceed with court case. You should not be regretting later for taking wrong action and wasting money on court cases.

Please note that if a father's property is self earned, meaning, property acquired by him out of his own earnings, he has the liberty to give or bequeath the property to any one he wants to during his life time. In such a case the daughter can not claim. Also, it would not be much difficult to produce a fake will if this property is worth million of rupees. 

You should ask the basic question first -

a. Were your spending money on maintenance of this home?

b. Were you supporting your parents with money as and when they required?

c. Were you taking care of them when they'd crossed certain age?

d. Were you accessible to them as first resource when something wrong happened to them?

You should ask for share politely than going through all this legal glitches. Thanks!

Mango

We have all the background information.  The properties were inherited.

Property transferred from grandparents to my father.

The case is beyond negotiation.  Total exclusion of interaction is being practiced.

"inaction" would not be justified.

Thank you.

Thank you.