Respected ppl,
Might be a lengthy post but want to get a clear picture before I send a legal notice.
I reside in Bangalore and owned a ancestral property.
I wanted to sell this ancestral property and buy a new one
I found a buyer for my property, entered into sale agreement and received advance
I found another property and entered into an agreement there too, and paid him the advance, it was neither registered nor adjudicated nor stamp duty paid. It was just on a bond paper.
After a few days, the person supposed to buy my property backed off and cancelled the agreement
Since I was unable to find another suitable buyer, I wanted to cancel the purchase which I was intending to and informed the same to the seller. And we cancelled the agreement by writing it in hand on the agreement paper itself.
The agreement has a clause that, in case of the sale is not completed in 3 months the advance amount paid has to be returned.
And he orally told me that he will return me the amount after he sells the property to which I agreed.
Later, I sold my property at a 15% lesser price and returned the advance which I had taken.
I have NOT declared the receipt of advance in my Income tax Returns as I returned it back in the same financial year.
And all this was in between April 2016 to October 2016
Now, the seller has sold the property to about 15% lesser amount than I had agreed and he is saying that he has incurred other losses in form of EMI interest etc and telling that he will deduct all that from my advance. And on top of it he is NOT giving me any specific date on when he would return NOR he is giving anything in writing.
Now my questions:
Is the unregistered agreement legally binding?
Can he legally deduct the amount for the losses which he claim to be incurred?
What legal remedies do I have?
In Bangalore, what would be the average time for these kind of cases take for judgement?
Thanks in advance