Miles (Manager) 20 November 2016

House built on our land illegally and false police complaint

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!

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4 Replies

Ms.Usha Kapoor (CEO) 21 November 2016

DEMOLIAHING A PART OF THE HOUSE IS THOUGH NOT ILLEGAL AS SOEONE ELSE OTHER THAN OWNER HAD BUILT THE HOUSE BUT YOU HAVE SOUGHT THE HELP OF MUNICIPAL CORPORATION OR TOWN MUNIICIPALITY.THEN IT WOULD HAVE MADE THE E ACT OF DEMOLITION AN ACT OF LEGITAMACY.

FILE ACASE FOR DECLARATION OFTITLE AND POSSESSION FROM THAT WOMAN WHO OCCUPIEDHE HOUSE ILEGLALLY. SINCE ALL THE TITLE DOCUMENTS ARE WITH YOU YOU CAN EASILY PROVE YOUR OWNERSHIP RIGHTS TO 3RD PARTIES.OR THAT WPOMAN DEMANDS SOME REASONABLE SUM FROM YOU TO SETTLE AND CONFER TITLE onYOU YOU Py the sum and own the house and posession also.

1 Like

(Guest)

See this Problem you need to solve in a different way

1) Go to the authority who is the owner of the road (Road are owned by different authority too , like state govt for state highway , local govt for local road etc.) . Give written complaint to them and after 15 days ask information what steps they have taken under RTI to demolish structure on public road

2) See to it that they don't encroach further on your land and keep someone to watch their activities too

3) Whenever such problem takes place it becomes a combination of civil and criminal law both. For eg. that man have encroached on your land illegally under Indian Penal Code he has done tress pass . He has entered your land whom you are owner . Now at time of filling FIR how it is presented also depends upon your advocate. Your advocate may suggesst after checking all tax receipt of that house to claim that is your house only and she has done house tresspass and trying to take house which is owned by you. So such thing can go on

4) Now how your case is required to be handled depends upon local advocate who have seen and examine all documents both of you and that person , that person documents local adv. can tell how to collect under RTI from local govt etc.

5) Additionally Civil Suit too can move on in this matters but it takes years or decade to get settle this is sad reality of life in India

6) In that case instead of going straight way compromise by giving money and exit

7) One idea which others does in such case is combination of all , they become comanding on the problem and then they negotiate with opp. party and force them to accept lower price what they demand and get them out of that land /organization etc. Means while compromising with them they are not in weak situation but they are in strong position too but want to end topic , eg. Her house on road is demolished, Illegal construction partial demolished by local authorities, then you tell you are starting IPC proceeding of tresspass , sending legal notices, and eventually compromising on some amount give them and remove them

SHARAD CHANDRA DANEJ (Asstt. Manager) 21 November 2016

I endorse the views of Madhu.

Miles (Manager) 09 December 2016

Ms.Usha Kapoor, Madhu.P & Sharad Chandra Danej, Thank you guys very much for your valuable suggestions! Based on you suggestions, we told the cops that we aren't ready for any out of court negotiation and asked them to move the case to court. Since then there's no response from them. And since we're not planning on building any property on that land, we've decided to secure it with fences and monitor is regularly to avoid encrouchments. Thank you guys very much again for taking your time to post your suggestions! It helps normal folks like me to learn and stand up for our rights!