Dear Sir, I have signed a Agreement of Sale to sell our property to my distant relative. The agreement is notarized document executed with Rs.1000 stamp. The agreement is signed by 2 witnesses, one is my husband and 2nd is son in law of the other party. The agreement was executed in 2 original copies. One was with me and 2nd was with the buyer. Under that Agreement I received 10 Lakhs of amount in cash and remaining amount of 5 Lakhs to be received at the time of Sale Deed execution. But due to some circumstances we both parties decided to cancel our deal. I returned the cash of 10 lakhs to the other party in front of the original 2 witnesses and the buyer handed over his original copy of agreement to me. Now i have both the original copies of the agreement. In good faith we did not do any cancellation of agreement in writing as we both knew each other for long time and never thought that there would be any issue. But now the other party has sent me legal notice stating that I have not returned their money. They are only having a copy of the agreement and are trying to take advantage of the situation with bad intention. What should I do ?
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Foolishness has a limit which you have surely crossed it. It is quite evident.
Now it's not clear whether the return of money is through cheque or bank transfers or by cash.
If it's through cash then you have lot if difficulty to prove your case.
Anyway engage a good advocate to reply the legal notice in most possible strong words.
If you have eye witnesses to testify on return of money then you can breath sigh of relief.
The receipt and return of money both happened in cash.
you don't pay the amount again. You should have taken Acknowledgment of cash return. Now you need to contest the case. Reply the notice and contest the case
Send him a reply of notice stating that you did not receive any money and neither did he pay any money as the transfer is yet to take place, only if your agreement is silent about the advance payment.
Regards
1. Any Agreement for immovable property which is not Stamped as per circle value and not registered before the Registrar of Sub-Assurances, has no legally enforceable value.
2. Further Giving or Taking Cash over 20,000/- is a prosecutable offence under the Income Tax Act and the PMLA laws.
2. Since there is no receipt of the payments, You can safely ignore the legal notice, because the opposite party will not be able to prove anything in court, more so specifically due to above point no. 1 & 2.
Reply to legal notice that cash of Rs 10 lakhs has been refunded to him in front of buyers
obtain affidavit of witnesses that cash has been refunded to buyer
You must reply to legal notice that agreement was cancelled and money refunded
You must reply to legal notice that agreement was cancelled and money refunded
1. A cancellation agreement should have either separately been executed or you should have obtained an endorsement from the buyer that agreement stands cancelled.
2. It is a common practice to file a suit for specific performance on the basis of a copy of the original agreement by filing an application to seek the permission of court to lead secondary evidence stating that original agreement is lost. You can then be held liable by the court through a decree of specific performance to execute the sale deed in favour of buyer.
3. Reply to the notice through your lawyer and deny all the allegations and file a caveat.
Do pay any heed to the legal notice.
If they file some case than file a police complaint against them for extortion of money
No worries.
Based on the facts of your case I would reply as under:-
Agreement which has not been registered with competent authorities has no legal rights to ensure enforcement of the same before court of law.
Now important issues.
If you have issued receipt of payment of INR cash 10 Lakhs and refunded it with acknowledgment of other parties. NO PROBLEM.
No worries for advers action by your opponents.
Reply the notice and deny the claims of your opponents.
Let them go to court. Defend it and win the case.
If you have received a notice from the buyer demanding the return of the advance amount, it becomes your duty to issue a reply notice denying the allegations.
You can challenge his claim when he approaches the court with a money recovery suit on the basis of documentary evidences and witnesses in your side.
He is doing this out of greediness or on misguidance by some rumour monger.
You discuss with your lawyer and proceed.
Then the burden of proof to prove both the transactions will fall on both the parties.
You have witnesses and should produce them whenever required in case the other party registers a case.
Don't reply to the legal notice. If they institute a case then put all the evidence before the court.
You should have taken the receipt. You committed the very big mistake. Out of greed, original witness may also support him preferably his son in law.
Have you withdrawn the amount from account on same day of return or given from home ?
Do you have proof like message or something where both parties agreed to cancel the deal and return of amount on particular day.
You have to send reply to notice. Reply should be draft in such a way that it will become evident that full amount paid and present notice send with malafide intention.
Dont worry, you may not require to pay anything. Since he has delivery the agreement to you, presumption will be amount refunded.
you need to reply to the legal notice through an advocate and mention facts that cash has been refunded to him
Just reply to legal notice through an advocate.
To clarify, im not very familiar person with legal documents. Just now someone pointed out to me that the Agreement To Sale is not even notarized. There is no seal of any kind on the document. It is on a green paper but yes there is Rs.1000 e stamp paper attached with it. When we gave the money back to the buyer we took his original copy of the agreement also. So now he is not having any originals. He is only having a photocopy of the agreement. Is this document valid as Agreement of Sale ? If we state that no agreement is executed, can he prove his case with photocopy of this document without any Notary or without any registration ? What should we Reply in response to the notice ?
- Since, the said agreement to sell was not notarised , hence legally a cancellation deed cannot be registered for cancelling the deal .
- Further , the limitation period of any agreement is 3 years from the date of execution.
- Further, a unregistered agreement is not admissible before the court , and a photo copy of the same is not any legal proof in the absence of original .
- You should reply the said notice after mentioning that there was no agreement executed and registered by you , and that said agreement is false and fabricated , and thereby mention that you are going to lodge a complaint against him for the office of blackmailing .
Section 61 of the Evidence Act prescribes that the contents of a document may be proved either by primary evidence or by secondary evidence. According to Section 62 thereof primary evidence means the document itself produced for the inspection of the Court. Explanation 2 to Section 60 provides that copies of a common original are not primary evidence.
Thus, the photocopy cannot be a primary evidence. As such, it cannot be classified as document. Now let us see whether it can come within the definition of secondary evidence. For secondary evidence, the testimony must indicate that the alleged photocopy was prepared from the original or that it was not prepared from a copy of the original, or that it was compared with (he original if prepared from a copy compared with the original. In the absence of any material, it cannot be treated to be a secondary evidence. It is only orally being claimed to be a photocopy without claiming that what was photographed was the original or that it was compared with the original. So, the photocopy to be admissible as evidence has to be a certified copy. No reliance can be expected on a document which is otherwise inadmissible in a Court and. that whenever "document" is referred in an order or is required to be produced, it must satisfy the test of admissible documents viz. original or secondary as provided in Sections 64, 65 and 66 of the Evidence Act. Further, the Supreme Court of India in J. Yashoda Vs. K. Shobha Rani, AIR 2007 SC 1721 : has held that secondary evidence admissible only in the absence of primary evidence when proper explanation of its absence is given.
Document is valid as agreement for sale
2) non registration does not affect validity of agreement for sale
3) do not deny execution of agreement for sale
4) contact a lawyer and reply to legal notice
No , document is not valid for sale.
You have stated in your case Sale deed is Notarized now saying not Notarized.
Please see your statement in this post and decide Notarized or non- Notarized.
You can't escape and deny having document singed. This would go against you if you deny for signing sale agreement which is Notarized as per your statement in the present post .
You may reply denying for successful result of sale agreement.
You may deny having received cash amount if did not pass the receipt of payment.
You may reply that process of sale of property is canceled because of non-performing act from your opponents as to the terms of payment.
That document is invalid.
Nothing to worry.
If at all he plans to go to court, you may allow him to proceed.
His case will not be maintainable.
Even now you can put a cross over the original sale agreement which indicates that the sale agreement has been cancelled.
To issue a reply notice you may engage the services of an advocate.
No need to worry you can reply that money was returned to buyer and agreement was cancelled after returning of original documents and legal notice is sent with fraudulent intentions.
Agreement can use as proof of payment. Advocate will reply to notice
Yes he can prove that this document exists as tge estamp must have been purchased either by you or him.
No it is not at all valid.
Yes agreement of sale. No he can't prove the case with photocopy. But you need to establish a valid defense
1. Agreement to sale is not required to be notarised much less registered. A cause of action can be founded even on an unregistered agreement to sale.
2. I have already told you that a suit for specific performance can be filed even on the basis of a xerox of original.