My sister and I are the only two surviving heirs of the family. My parents died a few years ago in a car accident, leaving us a house. Both of us are married and since my marriage, I have been living with my husband in a rented house.

My sister and her husband, on the other hand, continued to stay in my father's house. A part of the house was also leased out by my sister for a huge sum of money. After my parents died, I requested my sister to hand over my share of the property.

She has refused my request every time, saying that since she has bought the property, I have lost all my claims over it. However, this is not true since she has not purchased the property.

My father had purchased the property along with his brothers and, after a settlement between them, had become the sole owner. What should I do in these circumstances to get my rightful share of the house?

Neeta Mathur, Nagpur

It is clear from the facts stated by you that your sister is not entitled to the entire property, unless of course your father sold it to her. But you are not aware of any such move and with the untimely demise of your parents, it seems to be a remote possibility.

Assuming this, you should file a suit for partition along with a plea for the declaration of title and possession before the appropriate civil court. If the court arrives at a decision in your favour, nullifying your sister's claim of having bought the property, it shall be divided under the supervision of the court, in which case you will become the legal owner of your share of the property. You will also be entitled to halve the income generated from the property from the date of filing the suit. I would therefore advise you to consult a lawyer as soon as possible.

My brother and I were jointly gifted a house by my uncle in 1993. This house is at present under our joint possession. Despite my repeated demands, my brother has not partitioned the property in accordance with the share ratio. It has now come to my knowledge that my brother is trying to sell his share of the property. If he succeeds in doing so, I will face unnecessary problems. Please tell me how I can stop him from selling the property to a third party?

Satish Kumar, Delhi

Your brother does not seem to have denied the fact that you are a co-owner of the house. What you can do under these circumstances is file a suit for partition of the house according to the laid down specifications. You can also seek an injunction from the court, which will restrain your brother from selling the property. He cannot sell the property till the court issues a judgement. A co-owner has the right to validly alienate his share of the property, subject to the rights of the co-sharers. Normally, therefore, a co-owner is not entitled to issue an injunction restraining the others from exercising his right on the property. In your case, however, specific portions of the house are under dispute and in such a situation, a temporary injunction may be granted to you. Recently, I purchased a shop in a shopping complex and started a business of photocopying and relating activities. However, the electricity cables laid down by the builder/contractor are of very poor quality and almost every day the electricity is off due to short circuit of cable wires. I've complained about it to the builder several times but he's refused to do anything about it and says that the cables laid is of the best quality and the short circuits occur due to excess load being utilised by me. Due to electricity problem, my business is suffering and at this stage, I do not have extra money to buy a generator. Please guide me if I can do anything legal.

Prakash Singh, Delhi

Your problem is genuine. However, you've not been given any details about the terms and conditions in respect of your purchase of the said shop in order to enable us to analyse as to whether the builder is liable for the maintenance of the cables or not. You've also not supplied the details about the load sanctioned to you by the builder and the actual load being utilised by you. In the absence of these details, I cannot give you a clear legal advice. However, if you are utilising electricity within the given load and the cables laid down by the builder/contractor are not suitable for sustaining the said load, you can initiate proceedings in a consumer forum and get quality cables laid down by them. You can also claim damages for the loss in business suffered by you due to the said deficiency.

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