Buying a property is one of the most legally intensive processes, since the complete transactional process involves a number of legal proceedings. Moreover, the amount of fraudulent activities that riddle the real estate sector make it a necessity to incorporate legal intricacies. There are a number of legal issues that you must keep in mind before buying a property.
Here’s a list of residential properties you can buy in DHA Islamabad.
Common Issues
When looking for a plot for sale or a house for rent there are a number of things that need to be done to make sure that you avoid future legal trouble. These troubles can be listed down as four main points.
- Check CDA, LDA, and RDA authorised property list
- Investigate Property Ownership Claims
- Authentic Property Documents
- In case the property owner is living abroad investigate the authenticity of the Power of Attorney
Check Authorized property lists
The first thing to do is to check against the verified lists on CDA, RDA and LDA’s websites for societies that are approved. There are a lot of fraudulent societies that scam people of their hard-earned life savings.
It is always a good idea to check that the property you’re buying is an authorised property listing and approved by the relevant authorities. These lists are updated daily by the relevant websites and are always up to date with the latest information. If a property is not listed or says that it is waiting and you should invest now, don’t do it as it is probably an exit scam.
Make sure to check the authority that is applicable in your location as most societies have various societies for different cities.
Investigate Property Ownership Claims
Before buying a property it is essential that you check for property claims on that specific property. There can be people who scam people by trying to sell a property twice. Settling property claims in courts can take many years and still give no satisfactory results so it’s better to avoid that in the first place.
It’s always better to hire a professional to vet a property to know that there are ot any outstanding claims against the property that you’re trying to purchase and if it’s clear only then proceed to buy that property.
Authenticate Property Documents
This goes without saying that you should authenticate property documents for fakes or unauthorised duplicates. Before buying a property make sure to authenticate all the relevant documents by the corresponding authorities. Fake documents can leave you stranded as there is a long legal battle to fight and this situation can be avoided by simply being vigilant in your approach.
Keep a record of what documents are required and keep copies to make sure that there are no discrepancies. When asking the buyer for the relevant documents ask for the original copies to verify and verify again if you do not manage to finalise the deal the first time. Most documents have certain stamps and security features that are commonly known to easily identify fakes so be on the lookout for those.
Property documents also give information that can be validated against what the buyer is saying. If you’re buying a property that has some payments due then make sure to double-check the seller’s word and get the confirmation from the bank.
Authenticate The Power of Attorney
The most important part of the sale is to verify whether the seller is authorised to make the purchase. More often than not the owner of a property is not present physically or lives abroad so meeting him physically is difficult. The power of attorney is the power given by the seller to the representative to make the transaction on his behalf.
The power of attorney is there to make sure that no unauthorised sale can be made without the pertinent permission of the owner. This helps when children try to pawn off the property of their parents without being the express owners.
There are two types of power of attorney. The first is normal power of attorney where the receiver has executive control over every affair and the other is a specific power of attorney where only when a certain number of conditions are met only then can the sale be made.
This should be the top most priority to check whether the property can be sold and under which conditions and if the seller claims he has the power of attorney to check whether that is true or not.
These are some common legal issues that if overlooked can cause problems and land you in troubled waters so make sure to do your research and due diligence on local and national laws to ensure that you are not blindsided by any surprises.
