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Hi,

I am not sure if this has already been discussed. If so, i would appreciate pointers.

I am in USA and looking for some help and advice as we are trying to settle a house between my father & uncle (both living in India & retired: age 70 & 72)

Just some history, to give some context (i am sure it's very common to lot of folks)

- My grandfather (grandparents left us some 15~16 years back) has build a house that i am helping to settle between two brothers (My father & Uncle)
- My father is elder, and has been taking care of the house, maintenance, taxes and upgrade for last 18~20 years. He has lived in the same city and took care of his parents. He was execution in a PSU and did good career wise and financially. My Mom also worked as teacher and she is retired now. They are managing their expenses out of savings with help from me as and when needed.

- Uncle is remote and was not actively involved in maintenance and any other expenses. He did support his parents on monthly basis. He was also an engineer in a PSU and did good career wise. His company did not do that great and he saw impact from that financially. He was busy post retirement and manage to get some good money post retirement. He is dependent on his savings post retirement.

- Post demise of my grandparents i helped financially and with agreement from uncle my father build some shops and rooms for rental income (Shops on ground floor & rooms on 1st floor)

- this was done to address financial needs to maintain property and support for my parents (uncle was not involved / take share on new construction.

- Original house was not not rented most of time as uncle was planning to relocate back, but that did not meteralized. There were expenses towards constructruction changes and water pipeline arrangements etc that was taken care by my father. Later when some part was rented out. He was given his share from rent.

- there was some legal issues regarding this house (while grandparents were alive) and my father took efforts to sort it out & settle it. Uncle was not able to help actively.

- there is some disagreement / view point differences between my father and uncle on construction design, but uncle is now agreed to do a mutual settlement and requested to settle it among them.

To address this We have hires a authorised evaluator and have his report based on collector rate for land and construction square footage. But need help in following :
- Given current real estate market i am not sure if we can find a buys easily. I am not sure how we can adjust to that.
- How to adjust for all the expenses and effort that was done in past 18~20 years. I need advise to factor that in in final price.
- How to handle tax situation as there will not be an actual selling of the house at this point. Theoretically my uncle is selling his 50% share from original land and house (not new construction)

I am trying to help to we can settle it without triggering any bitterness in relationship and put things in such a way that can help understand all calculations so it sounds fair to my uncle and father. I understand that there are lot of things that can not have a direct monetary value, but your advice will help me understand and organize things.

Really appreciate your help and support.

Since your uncle seems to be 50% owner of everything on this property unless he signed some paperwork to say otherwise, just be nice to him and accept anything less than 35% value of the whole property as his share or lower if he agrees to, I am hoping he is a gentleman and will give credit to everything that has been spent to develop and maintain the property.

I would simply write down everything that has been spent to date, as far as you can remember and show that to uncle, hopefully its not more than 60% of total value of property. Be lenient, let go off small stuff and don’t litigate too much if your uncle doesn’t like it.

Thanks! Yes, there was a paperwork signed for new construction and he has only asked his 50% on land and original house. appreciate inputs on Tax handling and other factors..

Assume that total price now for Land +Old building+ New Building at current price is 100L
Say, Actual Construction Cost for New building is 15L (if it is just few years since you put this money say <3 yrs. NO inclusion of accrued interest on the 15L because of the following:1. it is your choice knowingly to build on someone else's property although the effort is from your parents. 2. The rent from the new shops is enjoyed by you and your parents only. )


so give uncle half of remaining 85L i.e 42.5L. Yeah, he was not there for property up keep or stuff, but so what?. That is something between the brothers (your father might not feel the need and may act like a big brother
and let go of silly stuff like this) THey should be in a state at this point of life that they should put all this above their relationship and your grand parents. You cannot monetize the fact that your father
helped your grandparents more than your uncle and uncle was not able to actively help.


BY trying to monetize physical work and the act of taking care of parents will just make the relationship bad.

Otherwise, let your father put it on the uncles court by giving him the choice to give back for the effort on property tax and utility taxes alone, and not keep it against him, if he thinks its fair with 42.5L on each side.

For tax just get in touch with a good CA he will be able to suggest a good route.

We can wait for someone with experience to chime in, but these things are so remote you may not get any feedback.

Sulpha has a very good response, the key in this dealing is to not be petty and be very generous and let your uncle be generous to your family, and hopefully relationship will also not suffer.

My experience in these matters is, as soon as one party become pedantic and/or petty the other party starts feeling like they are getting a bad deal and pretty soon the whole thing goes south with hurt emotions and all...

Hopefully the total amount involved is less than 2 crore.

SDX;683516Thanks! Yes, there was a paperwork signed for new construction and he has only asked his 50% on land and original house. appreciate inputs on Tax handling and other factors..

SDX : In my humble opinion, It can be argued that your uncle did not use the house at all while your father did. He even used what was rightfully your uncles share. I don't see why your uncle should be entitled to anything less than 50%.

Please don't take it otherwise that's just how I see it. Despite being younger I was the first one to buy home for my parents. Since some elder siblings were living with them they enjoyed living there which of course was more than welcome to me as I never bothered for these things. However after my father passed away they had little bit of tough time letting that property go for similar reason. Though not exactly analogous but its a similar situation.

It may be tempting to justify the expenditure on home as a reason to give your uncle less than 50% but he can also very well argue that he let you guys use his share without rent for so many years and now you guys should pay for it. The best way I see is 50-50

Thanks for all the inputs. Maybe I should have added clarification.

My father did not use my grandparent's house (they have their own) and actually left his portion for uncle so he can use it when he returns back to native place (which did not materialized).. He actually upgrade/fix things in original house to it can used by uncle when he comes back.. The investments made by me was over 15 year .. just with a thought that there will some income to take care pf property maintenance etc.. I am sure, same investments would have yielded much better returns elsewhere.. and maintenance & care is being done for 25+ years which living or using that property by my father.. so from all that perspectives i see my father doing his big brother role all along and still not going to go against small things..

Also, we are not confused on 50% justified share (and they why we have evaluated it with a 3rd party and checking with CA already)..

The real inputs i was seeking was how to handle tax calculation (as the baseline price would change depending on money that will be given to my uncle) for any future sale of the house (this being a inherited property) and expenses related to selling this house (broker commission or any other cost) and a way to adjust expenses (big ticket items). But i understand expenses adjustment needs to be mutually settle.