[BITList] Off Topic ?

[John Feltham]

xpats risk losing homes in Goa

Nicola Smith, Sunday Times, London 22 September 2009, 02:34am IST

Hundreds of Britons may lose their holiday homes and life savings in  
Goa after falling foul of changes in local laws and scams by builders  
and lawyers. Some allege they are victims of racism and have been told  
to ‘‘go home’’.

Many invested tens of thousands of pounds a few years ago in  
legitimate transactions, only to be told the rules had changed and  
their properties may be confiscated. In one of the most common  
scenarios in Goa, British buyers were told by local lawyers and the  
Reserve Bank of India that they could legally own property if they set  
up an Indian company and made the transaction through it. By 2007, the  
rules on foreigners owning property through a business appeared to  
have changed, though only in Goa.

The region used to be part of the hippie trail, but has reinvented  
itself as a package-holiday centre. It attracts 1,00,000 British  
holidaymakers a year, 60% of its foreign tourist trade.

The new interpretation of the law by the Goan authorities has left  
hundreds, such as Su Peplow, 57, from Bedfordshire, without property  
deeds and facing large financial losses.

In 2005, Peplow, a quality director for a human tissue research  
association, decided to retire to Goa with her husband. They settled  
on a two-storey flat under construction in Cavelossim, a fishing  
village, and invested more than £20,000. The couple signed a contract  
for a 56-month lease with a right to buy. Like many others, they hired  
local lawyers to help them and were advised to set up a business to  
buy the flat.

Peplow’s husband died in 2006 and she decided to proceed with the  
purchase alone. She paid the builder for registration of the deeds,  
transfer of the utilities into her name, land tax and stamp duties.  
She also handed over £6,500 for furniture and renovation, and paid  
legal fees. After she paid the final instalment to the builder, he  
reportedly said he could not transfer the deeds as he would be  
‘‘breaking Goan laws’’. Her lawyer disappeared and she stands to lose  
her entire investment when the lease runs out.

Another Briton said despite a letter from RBI affirming that she had  
done everything legally, she was told by a local subregistrar that he  
‘‘couldn’t register our property as I was white and a foreigner’’.  
Vikram Varma, a local lawyer, said more than 1,000 people could have  
been caught out by changes in the laws and by builders’ scams. The  
British deputy high commissioner is being sent to Goa to hear people’s  
concerns. The enforcement directorate and Goan government declined to  
comment.

The difficulties coincided with a popular movement opposing the  
purchase of large tracts of land by Indian and Russian developers as  
Goans fear losing their cultural identity.


ooroo

Bad typists of the word, untie.