Real estate Pakistan has been on the rise for the past few decades in Pakistan. real estate Pakistan has quickly grabbed attention of businessmen and young entrepreneurs due to its amazing potential for investment. Real estate Pakistan has a very high demand of supply of property. Keeping this in view many real estate developers have taken to providing real estate projects that are one up the previous ones on the market. What this results in is better and better societies and communities being built by the day.
With the real estate sector expanding at a speedy pace; it has also grabbed the attention of a few fraudulent and scam artists. Unfortunately there are numerous scams on the real estate market such as the title fraud, getting a higher amount of commission, selling property to multiple people, fake listings, quick fixes on old properties and even more. However he point of focus in this article, as the title suggests; is going to be about land grabbing. We will take you over what land grabbing really is and how can you avoid and tackle it to make sure your money does not go to waste and the property does not go into a legal dispute.
What is land grabbing:
First and foremost, we should define what the act of land grabbing is for those who are unaware. Simply put; land grabbing is the act of illegally taking over a property that does not belong to a person. The most commonly used tactics by land grabbers are to provide fake sale as well as rental agreements and records to verify their position once the property is disputed over.
Even though real estate is an excellent investment opportunity for growth; due to the issues such as land grabbing a lot of new investors hesitate to put their money towards this field. There are unfortunately multiple stories of people losing their investments due to cases of land grabbing which can be quite discouraging for newcomers to the field of real estate industry. This is one of the prime reason one should know how to handle this issue.
One might think that in today’s judicial system, surveillance and investigative forces; the issue of land grabbing would not be much trouble; however in Pakistan this situation would become a lot more complicated.
Take the example of a person who legally and righteously bought a property which was then taken over illegally. In the case that this person has not registered himself to the ownership of property after they bought it will incriminate the current owner as well. The judicial system in the world demands proof of innocence however for people who have failed to check in with authorities and recognized themselves as the new owner will fail to provide sufficient proof. You might have the property papers and rental or installment payments however the tricky land grabbers would have the same tactics (which are obviously faked) under their belt. This will further complicate the issue of land grabbing.
Speaking of the judicial system’s attempts to stop land grabbing in Pakistan; there has been introduction of additions into the Illegal Dispossession act released in 2005. According to this the punishment for land grabbing is up to ten years of jail time. The main stipulation added is that there are no preconditions to the complaint that is filed. This further emphasizes attention towards checking property at dispute before investing into it. However for the greater good; this policy has made it easy to make land grabbers and qabza mafia accountable to their actions as compared to before.
Now the overall, Pakistani government has greatly recognized the issue and also made changes to the Pakistan citizen portal to file complaints against land grabbing. This allows citizens to readily inform the authorities when land is being encroached upon whether it is yours or someone else’s. Furthermore provincial chief secretaries are notified to arrange meetings amongst authoritative figures such as RPOs and DCs for education and eradication of land grabbing issue in Pakistan.
This is not all from the authoritative point of view! Punjab police has also established an anti qabza-mafia cell that is dedicated to dealing with issues of land grabbing. If you notice or catch any form of land encroaching in plots near your house or property that you personally own; make sure to call the helpline of 1272. Punjab police is confident in stating that such cases will be responded and worked on immediately through the helpline. The cell claims to resolve most issues within 72 hours of filing a complaint. This speedy response time is a further threat to land grabbers as they cannot produce convincing fake paperwork or use other tricks up their sleeves if caught in the act!
All these attempts have helped people gain further confidence in Pakistan’s real estate sector for investment.
How can you prevent land grabbing?
Surely the judicial system has taken this matter very seriously to give speedy justice to the victims of these cases; there are cautions that you can and should take to avoid stepping into a case of land dispute over two parties. The best action to take in this case is preventive. Following are some tips to avoid your property getting in the hands of land grabbing mafias.
Give indication of your ownership:
The properties that land grabbers take over are usually empty plots. Often time these mafias are on the lookout for someone to buy a piece of land to which they can illegally encroach upon. An empty plot with no construction gives little to any sign of its ownership and is quite vulnerable to land grabbing mafia. One of the best preventive measures is to build a physical boundary around the plot to give a sign that somebody has this property. Building a boundary wall is a great way to indicate that the property is going through construction process and is being monitored by the days. This makes it tough for land grabbing mafias to do their deeds and takeover the property illegally.
With the recent government interventions it has become easy to report such suspicious acts; so if your plot is amongst a fairly developed neighborhood you can possibly get in touch with the neighborhood and tell them to report any malicious activity with the property to make another preventive barrier against land grabbing.
Secure the documentation:
Another important precaution to avoid land grabbing is to make sure you have complete documentation of the property. The forms that indicate ownership, the papers that include monetary transfers after the sale of property to you; all documentation is going to be important here. As discussed above land grabbing mafias will often produce some fake paperwork to convince others or even the court; you cannot afford to have limited paperwork in such case so make sure that you have all the documents you need in an unfortunate case this does happen.
Moreover you should never hand over these sensitive property papers to anyone who asks for them. people can often keep photocopied versions of these papers and produce fake paperwork off of it to seem authentic to authoritative figures. One should know when to say no to hand over papers and monitor who does and who doesn’t get to know about the fine print of your property documentation. This protection of paperwork is not only limited to the property papers but also your ID documentations like passports, ID cards and Licenses.
Research the investment property:
A big way mafias are able to make their land grabbing successful is by secretly filing a grabbing complaint against the seller or simply selling a property that is already at dispute. This is easy to fall for people who are not conducting proper research on the property they are investing into. Research truly is one of the best pre requisites of investment in real estate sector.
Whether it be researching for the rates of property, security of the area or condition of the property, one cannot overlook the importance of checking the property’s background. One should ask around the neighborhood or real estate firms the property might have been handled by to get a close insight on the history of this property. The last thing you want is the hassle of court visits to get the property you have rightfully bought.
Conclusion:
Land grabbing has been one of the rising issues with Pakistan’s blooming real estate sector. Thankfully in the recent years this issue has been highlighted and worked on by government authorities to increase penalty for land encroachers and bring justice to the victims.
However one should always be cautious to avoid battling a legal dispute over property. Simply by implying your ownership, taking complete care of documentation, researching properly and reporting suspicious activity to authorities; you too can help eradicate the issue of land grabbing so that Pakistan’s real estate industry gets recognized as a safer and secure place for investment.
