Unfair property practice

Eight years ago, my husband and I decided that we no longer wanted to deal with the stress of working in high pressure jobs. Our children were all married and half of them had moved abroad. We looked around and decided to move to Goa.

We approached a reputed builder and local advocate, who all told us we were safe to buy property in Goa. To be on the safe side, we asked the advocate to confirm through the Reserve Bank (RBI) that any purchase made by us was legal. We received a letter from the RBI advising that there would be no objection, providing we complied with FEMA. We still have this letter.

As we are not great lovers of modern architecture, we purchased an old Portuguese house with a nice-sized garden. All the paperwork was completed and we took possession of the property. Renovating the property and grounds was expensive; in all honesty it would have been cheaper to build a new house. But we were happy that it was our last house and we would make it just as we wanted.

For several years we were very happy in Goa. Then all of sudden we are being treated quite disgracefully. The press runs daily horror stories of how Goa doesn’t want people like us. We originally came on a 5 year X Visa. Then we were told we no longer qualify for these visas, and can only have a six-month tourist visa.

Now MLAs are openly saying that properties purchased by foreigners will be confiscated and auctioned. We sadly decided to leave Goa, but were informed that we could not sell our property. Our builder, who has enjoyed our patronage for years, has said that he will deal with all the paperwork if we sell the house to him for the initial purchase price (excluding what we paid him). My husband has become quite ill from all the stress, and we are now back in the UK so that he can be treated for the illness this has brought on.

While we are here, I will asking the UK government to put in place a reciprocal arrangement whereby propertyies of Goan settlers in the UK are confiscated and the country’s 60,000 Goan immigrants are forced to return to India.We want to say that we wished we had never heard of Goa and had never visited India. The whole experience makes me want to constantly cry, and I have been prescribed anti-depressants, something that never happened in the past. I would make a sincere plea to the authorities in Goa. We haven’t done anything wrong. Let us sell our legally purchased property and we guarantee we will come back again.

A lot of these builders and solicitors including close contacts of Ministers, who have sold properties are in England very often, in order to buy properties from the foreigners at the same price, which they had sold at the beginning of the contract. It is estimated that at least a thousand foreigners in U.K have been effected by this pathetic rule set by the goan ministers. Names of builders, estate agents and solicitors not published but with the U.K authorities for future investigation.

By Michelle Savage, UK

Posted By : Michelle Savage, UK on 15/05/2008