Flat in a society: Nomination
You have nominated your wife in your demat account, bank account, office provident fund and your wife is a co-owner of your house in the building society.
So you think you do not need a will, right?
Wrong. If your daughter in law goes to court all the properties will be divided as per the Hindu Succession Act, because you died Intestate.
Why did I say ‘your daughter in law’ because nobody thinks that their son or daughter will! What a Noble thought, and how wrong.
If you have a house and your wife is a second owner, please understand that the property DOES NOT AUTOMATICALLY PASS ON to your wife. Building societies are managed by people voluntarily – and have NO RISK OF being punished for delays. So they CAN and many times do:
ask for a NOC from all the possible stake holder
one stupid Secretary asked for a NOC from the dead man’s brothers too
ask for a court order before transferring (Probate!)
one secretary told the wife (widow) – What if they come tomorrow and claim so I need a noc (notarised) from your children FOR executing the nomination.
I can assure you that there is NO consistency in the stand taken by the so called secretary.
What is the best thing to do?
Make a nomination (be very clear) saying My wife holds 50% of the property, it is a Joint property and here is my WILL…..that this property should go her. She should become the 100% owner of the property….
If the value of the property is TOO MUCH make sure that your daughter in law will not have her killed for the house (of course your son will not)….
Nishanth
Financial Planning profession shows us a very depressing and cynical picture of humans,doesn’t it , Subra?:)
subra
cannot speak for financial planners. I am not one.
Advait
What happens if the husband & wife die within a short space of time or together as in an accident………what do the children or child do?
siddhant
Subra Sir,
But in india even a probate will take lot of time, I know of cases where registered wills were contested for 5-6 years by family members, & the points remain the same (undue influence & Not of sound mind), just too many, i am not sure what is the perfect & clear way for creating a will which is not contested (My father is a lawyer but yet to get any answer))
The best way that I can think of is creating a pass through partnership firm between the people with the property to be willed as part of Firm’s property which makes it beyond doubt.
Vaibhavi D
i have a flat in a co-op housing society. My husband also has a flat in the same building. We are the nominees for each other. We also have 2 daughters – and both the daughters are nominated also. The nomination says ‘In case the 1st nominee is no more, the second nominee becomes the owner’. Is this legal? Is this fine?