Buying Property Through Power of Attorney in Bangalore: Is It Safe?

The Power of Attorney is one of the most useful and most abused instruments in Indian property practice. A buyer arrives, finds a property, and is told the owner is in the United States, the United Kingdom, the Gulf, or simply unwell — and a relative will sign on the owner's behalf using a GPA. The deal closes quickly, the buyer is told it is routine, and most of the time, it is.

Then there are the matters that come to us — where the GPA was forged, was revoked, was never properly registered, was issued by a non-owner, or was used to convey property in a manner the Supreme Court has held does not transfer title at all.

What a GPA actually is

A General Power of Attorney is an instrument by which one person — the principal — authorises another — the agent — to act on his behalf in defined matters. In property practice, a GPA usually authorises the agent to manage, lease, mortgage or sell specified property. It does not, by itself, transfer ownership. The agent acts in the principal's name; the conveyance is from the principal to the buyer.

The Suraj Lamp principle

In Suraj Lamp & Industries v. State of Haryana (2011), the Supreme Court held that a transaction described as 'GPA sale' or 'sale by general power of attorney' — where a buyer pays consideration in exchange for a GPA, agreement to sell and a will, instead of a registered sale deed — does not convey title. The transaction is enforceable only as an agreement to sell. Title transfers only by a registered sale deed.

This means a buyer who 'bought' a Bangalore property through GPA-and-agreement, without ever taking a registered sale deed, does not own the property. He has at most a contractual claim against the seller, and the seller's heirs may dispute even that. For pre-2011 GPA transactions, the position is more nuanced, but the prudent course remains the same: insist on a registered sale deed.

When a GPA execution of a sale is legitimate

A GPA used to execute a registered sale deed on behalf of an owner who is genuinely unable to attend — NRI, senior citizen, hospitalised — is legitimate and routine. The flow is: owner executes a GPA in favour of a trusted agent, the GPA is registered (or notarised abroad and adjudicated in India), the agent uses the GPA to execute a registered sale deed in favour of the buyer. The buyer takes a registered sale deed in the principal's name through the agent's signature.

What we verify before clearing a GPA-based purchase

• The GPA itself — original, registered with the relevant Sub-Registrar, on adequate stamp duty
• For NRI principals — the GPA executed before an Indian consular officer or notarised before a foreign notary, then adjudicated under Section 18 of the Indian Stamp Act in Karnataka within three months of receipt
• Identity match — passport, visa, OCI card or Aadhaar of the principal cross-referenced against the GPA
• Photograph and signature consistency between the GPA, the principal's identity documents and the prior chain
• A subsisting GPA — a recent revocation search at the Sub-Registrar, and an affidavit-cum-undertaking from the agent that the GPA has not been revoked
• A live principal — proof that the principal is alive on the date of execution, since the GPA terminates automatically on the principal's death
• Scope of authority — the GPA must specifically authorise sale, registration, receipt of consideration, and execution of all incidental documents

The 'live principal' problem

A GPA terminates on the death of the principal. A sale deed executed under a GPA after the principal has died is void — no matter how clean the GPA itself looked. We have seen attempts to use GPAs months and years after the principal had died abroad, often by family members hiding the death. The standard protection is a fresh affidavit and direct video confirmation with the principal, dated within days of execution.

The 'agent acting for himself' problem

An agent generally cannot use a GPA to sell the property to himself or to a related party at an undervalue, unless the GPA expressly permits it. Many disputes we see involve an agent — usually a relative — who used the GPA to sell to himself, his spouse or his company. These transactions are routinely challenged on the ground of fiduciary breach.

Practical buyer-side protections

Where a GPA-based execution is unavoidable:

• Insist on a registered sale deed from the principal through the agent — never a 'GPA + agreement to sell' bundle
• Conduct a video call with the principal at the time of registration; record the call
• Obtain a fresh affidavit confirming the GPA is subsisting and the principal is alive
• Lodge a public notice in two newspapers — one English, one Kannada — at least two weeks before registration
• Pay consideration only into the principal's bank account, never into the agent's
• Pull a fresh EC and revocation search within 7 days before registration

If you are evaluating a Bangalore property where the seller is acting through a Power of Attorney — particularly where the principal is abroad, elderly or unreachable — send us the GPA and the chain of title on WhatsApp at +91 63634 69138. We will tell you whether the document is what it claims to be before any consideration moves.