Housemania
by Margaret Mascarenhas
Although I grew up in the Americas, both North and South, every year or two my family spent either Christmas or summer holidays in Goa. During my childhood these holidays involved flying into Mumbai, laden with 'phoren' gifts and foodstuffs for my grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, (all of which are today readily available in Goa). Among the foodstuffs, strategically placed on top, was our secret weapon-bacalhau-a taste for which I have never developed, and which, if they dared to open a container, would disgust the customs guys to such a degree that they would immediately loose interest in searching our suitcases. From Mumbai we would take the first flight to Dabolim airport and drive in an antique green Ambassador to
my grandparents' city home in Panjim. After a few hours, we would be off again, armed with buckets, cleaning utensils, candles, kerosene, across the Mandovi to Anjuna, where there was no telephone or electricity,
where we took turns pulling water from the well and visiting the pig bathroom.
Assorted family members would accompany us on the village adventure, mostly out of affection.
Anjuna is the location of my family's ancestral home. Over 300 years old, it falls into the category of homes lately being illiterately advertised by real estate agents as "Portuguese houses." Out of nine grandchildren, I would later be the only one who truly reveled in both the isolation of the village and its bare-necessity lifestyle throughout the year. My love of the village is the reason I eventually gave up my professional career as a journalist and moved back to Goa, where I became an editorial consultant.
This, of course, was before Goa became such a hot spot for upwardly mobile foreigners as well as the Mumbai and Delhi elite, pushing up prices, and changing the village atmosphere forever.
"Portuguese houses" in Goan villages have suddenly become all the rage. The house mania
that currently afflicts Goa, has converted former city slickers and society types into eulogists of pastoral life. It has brought in heavy-weights such as Lady Hamlyn, innovators such as Lulu. It has turned local lawyers into barracudas who write up a sale deed, then incestuously double up as partners with the same renovators and builders that purchased property from their own clients. It has caused every other person you meet to tell you he or she is in real estate. Those who are not selling are
looking to buy.
I first discovered the pitfalls of village property acquisition in Goa when I purchased my own home in Tivim with the help of ace real estate agent Michael Lobo of Homes and Estates (one of the few professional agencies in Goa). But there was a snag. Because NRIs, PIOs and foreign nationals were still required under FERA to obtain RBI permission to both buy and sell (a requirement now relaxed in terms of sale under FEMA), and because
Goa property purchase fell under the jurisdiction of the RBI in Mumbai, officials there were not familiar with our Forms I & XIV and zoning laws, and presumed any garden area in a rural area to fall under the 'agricultural land' zoning. (NRI's, PIOs and foreign nationals are not permitted to purchase agricultural land, though they are allowed to inherit
it.) I contacted a friend of mine, to happens to be an Executive Director at the RBI, who suggested that I go personally to the head office in Mumbai. He set up the first meeting. I obtained the relevant classification documents from the Town and Country Planning office regarding Settlement Zones in rural Goa. It took two trips to Mumbai and further documentation, but finally the permission was granted on condition that I not repatriate the proceeds should I ever sell it. (This rule too has now been relaxed to some degree under FEMA, my CA tells me.)
I was also fortunate in that my lawyers are all experts in Portuguese
civil code law, an absolute must, for the purpose of conducting a proper title check. Purchasers from outside Goa are often conned by unscrupulous owners, lawyers and brokers into believing that a Form I and XIV in the seller's name is all that is required to establish ownership, only to discover later that there are other claimants to the property, and that they are now
embroiled in a civil suit as third parties. So, it is important to obtain documents such as title deeds going back a good thirty years, establishing how the property came into the seller's name, and ensuring that there are no other family members with claims on the property in question. Under the law in Goa, there is a 30 -year statute of limitation on ancestral property from the time of inheritance, and contesting heirs can file their claim at any time during these 30 years. In the event other interested parties are
not in the country at the time of sale, posting a local newspaper notice regarding intent of
purchase does not always protect the buyer from litigation.
Frequently parties with no legitimacy whatsoever post notices to leverage some kind of settlement for themselves, as occurred when my father sold a property that had been earlier exempted from classification as "ancestral" by order of the Court. (As with a great deal of ancestral property in Goa these days, my family's too has been the subject of litigation-- for over ten years!)
While some purchasers may be willing and able to afford the risk in cases of unclear title, others are not willing to take the chance that heirs could pop out of the woodwork at a later date, challenging ownership rights. For this reason, many buyers tell me, they prefer to purchase unencumbered plots of land and build their own dream house in Goa.
Recently I have been hunting for an old village house for one of my
godchildren. Out of the 16 ancestral homes that I have seen, only two have clear titles. The search is still
on.
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The column above appeared in the May 2005 issue of Goa Today magazine.
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- Forwarded by Cecil Pinto [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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