The Lucknow Development Authority, following protracted correspondence, has finally issued the transfer memorandum, 1998, and has stipulated that the vendee should seek registration of the dwelling unit within 60 days of the date of the letter. Since the receipt of this letter my husband has been pursuing the matter with thevendor for securing the form 34-A from his tax assessing authority but to no avail. As the stipulated time for registration is running out, what action should be taken by him to safeguard his interest in the matter?-- M Verma, Lucknow

It appears that the vendor, having received full payment at the time of execution and registration of the agreement to sell, has absolutely no interest in ensuring that the property in question is conveyed in your husbands favour. However, he has both a legal and a moral obligation to see that the sale transaction is completed to your satisfaction. He can be legally compelled to secure and produce the Form 34-A before the registrar of assurance, but it is always better to do things through persuasion and personal goodwill rather than resorting to legal action which will not only be expensive but also time consuming. Furthermore, such an action would also render you liable to penalties on account of non-fulfillment of the registration condition prescribed in the transfermemorandum issued by the Lucknow Development Authority. In view of the above, I would suggest that you request the vendor to execute the conveyance deed and jointly present it for registration before the registrar in Lucknow. The registrar, at the time of presentation, is bound to ask for Form-34 A and in the event the same is not available, he will impound the document and record on both the deed and the registration receipt that the document has been impounded owing to non- submission of the Form 34-A by the vendor. Thereafter, it becomes a matter to be sorted out between the vendor and the registrar, who if necessary can also institute legal proceedings against the vendor for non-compliance of the terms of the conveyance deed and the registered agreement to sell.

Even if the document is impounded, you will have satisfied the condition imposed on you in the transfer letter issued by the Lucknow Development Authority and thus saved yourself from imposition of fines pursuant to your seeking revalidation ofthe transfer letter. The execution of the deed of conveyance and its admittance before the registrar by the vendor would also tantamount to the transfer and conveyance of the property in your favour even though the duly executed and registered sale deed will not be released to you till such time as Form 34-A has been delivered by the vendor to the registrar.

My husband and I jointly purchased a flat in Versova in Mumbai in 1991 for Rs 10 lakh for which one of our close relations secured a term loan of Rs 2.5 lakh repayable in 180 equated monthly installments from a nationalised bank where she is employed as an officer. It being a condition of the loan that the flat in question must be registered in the borrower's name, the flat was got registered in her name. Whilst the proposition seemed attractive at that time because of the availability of funds at a low rate of interest, we now find that although we are occupying the house, we do not own it. As far as the loan is concerned, we have already fully repaidthe loan to our relation along with the interest accrued thereon and hold receipts for the same. But on inquiry with the bank, we have been given to understand that our relation is only repaying the loan in equated monthly installments and therefore more than half the loan is still outstanding.We have been wondering as to how we should assure our title to the property in the present instances. Obviously, there are many alternative courses of action which are open to us including seeking a bequest in our minor daughter's name.

Could you kindly advise us the best course of action keeping in mind the delicacy of the relationship and the element of cost effectiveness, both for ourselves and our relation. It is also to be borne in mind that all the principal parties to the transaction are individual tax payers.

Ishani Shasikanthan, Mumbai

You can acquire marketable title to the property only by having the same transferred and registered in your name. This would mean your securing the concurrence ofyour relation to transfer the property after settling the outstanding bank loan and her securing a section 230 clearance under the Income Tax Act in prescribed form 34-A. The stamp duty payable by you, irrespective of the original cost of acquisition of the flat would be based on the prevailing market/ government fixed rate (circle rate) of the property.

In the event you insist on payment of the stamp duty based on the original cost of acquisition and if in the opinion of the registrar the document is undervalued, he will impound the document and refer the same for adjudication to the collector of stamps -- a time consuming and harassing procedure which could result in generation of additional demand for stamp duties and even imposition of a fine. Re-registration of property is a must, irrespective of you having the same executed in either your individual or joint names or even in the case of your minor daughter.

I would suggest that you discuss the matter with your relation, fix the time schedule fortransfer of property along with intermediate benchmarks to be achieved and reduce your understandings to writing through an agreement to sell which if possible should be got registered.