People who own a share of ancestral property, held jointly by their family, such as land or a house, may face objections from other co-owners. Disputes can arise from several reasons, including third- party interference in family property or financial issues. These issues can also create problems for buyers since without peaceful possession, the property’s title remains only on paper leaving the buyer unable to enjoy it. So for the interest of both the seller and buyer, certain legal steps need to be taken before selling a share of joint ancestral property.
At the ET Wealth Expo 2026, practical problems and issues like these were discussed and answered by a panel of experts including Sadhav Mishra, Senior Partner, Head of Real Estate at SNG & Partner Advocates and Solicitors, Amit H Wadhwani, Partner, Real Estate, Khaitan & Co, Farid Karachiwala, Partner, J. Sagar Associates and Sagar Kadam, Partner, DSK Legal.
What should owners of ancestral joint property do?
Assume you are one of the four brothers who owns a big ancestral land and you want to sell your 25% share in this land but the other brothers want to keep their share of the land.
Amit H Wadhwani, Partner, Real Estate, Khaitan & Co said that in such a case, first check if there is any notional division of the share of the land which also has a map illustrating which brother is holding which part of the land. Other documents should also be there supporting the ownership of each brother’s share in these lands. For example, the eastern side of the land may belong to brother no. 4.
Wadhwani says that if this type of arrangement is clearly set out, then brother no. 1 can sell his share of the land to a third party and it can hold good in law also. But this does not prevent the other brothers from disputing brother no.1’s sale of his share of the land. This is because the other brothers can argue that the notional division was merely a family arrangement and brother no.1 does not have an undivided interest in the land and needs consent of other brothers.
The second issue which the other brothers can raise is the FSI of the land can be a mismatch since it is an undivided interest meaning that brother no.1 can sell the best part of the land and the other brothers can get only the other parts of the land which may have less value.
Wadhwani says: “To prevent such issues you can always undertake a partition of the land before deciding to sell it as this can record your share in it and specifically mention which part of the land is owned by you. The second thing you can do is get a property card or revenue certificate recognising this partition and then sell it.”
In residential property cases a joint owner cannot unilaterally sell his share of the property
Farid Karachiwala, Partner, J. Sagar Associates, said that in case of a residential property a joint owner cannot sell his/her undivided share in the property to a third party as for residential property the other joint owner might be living in this property and third parties cannot enter the house without causing an interference.
Karachiwala says that in such jointly owned residential property cases, the co-owner should first file a suit for partition or if the property could not be partitioned then demand his share of the property.
For commercial properties purchased by a group of investors, Karachiwala says the agreement should clearly state, what happens if a member withdraws or sells their share to a third party. These and other key terms should be recorded at the time of the purchase .
Third party buyers need to take this important legal step if buying property jointly held by a family
Wadhwani says that for individuals who hold an undivided share of an ancestral property, the original title of the land is held with someone who has the larger share of the property.
Wadhwani says issues arise when a third party buyer wants to take a bank loan to acquire a share of the joint property from a co-owner, because in this case, the original title may not be with the co-owner who is selling it as he may not be the largest shareholder. In such cases, the third party buyer will have his sale deed only from the co-owner he purchased from.
According to Wadhwani, when a large piece of land is split and sold to multiple buyers, the original, master title deeds cannot be handed over to everyone. So the person with the original title deed must sign a covenant of original title production so that whenever the bank or the buyer wants to inspect the original root title of the property, it is available to inspect.
