Relinquishing share of property and heirship laws
Dear Sir or Madame,
As a bit of background to my situation, my father passed away in India 5 years ago and did not leave a Will. A month after my father passed away, my only brother passed away, again leaving no Will. My brother was married and had two children who are citizens of India. My mother is still alive and is a citizen of India. I have five sisters, all non residents of India. I myself am a British citizen and reside in the UK.
As my father had a lot of property and land, we handed over the management of this with the instruction of sale of all assets to a trusted accountant and advisor. Given that we five sisters live abroad, the advisor suggested we give him power of attorney to make decisions on our behalf for our well being and in accordance with Indian law. He sent us many documents to sign which we signed and sent back (I can send copies of the power of attorney and various other documents if you like). It has now come to our attention that one of the documents we signed has the following wording:
"Now, I the undersigned, out of the abovementioned heirs and owners, hereby relinquish my share in the said property without consideration in favour of my relatives and co-shares in the said property 1) My mothers name, 2)My deceased brothers wife's name, 3) My deceased brothers 2 daughters names and I intend to get my name deleted from the property cards of the said properties and I will be responsible for any objection or dispute may be raised by my heirs or successors for my share in the said property.
My questions are:
Can the above be withdrawn and overwritten as we signed documents sent to us by the advisor, however we were not told that we were effectively giving our share away?
Can the power of attorney be withdrawn?
The advisor has made decisions which do not necessarily have our best interests at heart, can we do anything about this? For example, My fathers house was in the name of my father only. Both my mother and deceased brothers wife live there. The advisor has now changed the title deeds of the house so that the house in 50% owned by my deceased brothers wife and 50% owned by my mother, with the full share going to my deceased brothers wife when my mother passes away. The advisor did not inform my mother or my sisters of this change before making it. We are not in agreement with this and would like to fight for our share of my deceased fathers properties. Please could you share avenues in which this could be done given the above circumstances. If you would like more information, them please do not hesitate to let me know.
Many thanks
Asked 8 years ago in Property Law
Religion: Hindu