For Indian parents conditioned by culture, it has always been difficult to snap the umbilical cord with progeny even in adulthood. This is the reason adult children stay with their parents till they get married and, sometimes, even afterwards.
While children may lose the right to stay in their parents’ house, they could retain the legal claim over parental property in some cases.
While the arrangement works well as long as it is based on mutual respect and financial understanding, it often sours under the glare of greed or friction caused by proximity. What if the fissures widen beyond repair? Can the parents ask their children to move out? Find out.
When can the parents evict children from their house?
Adult children can live with parents in their house only till the time the latter want them to. In 2016, the Delhi High Court ruled that ‘a son, irrespective of his marital status, has no legal right to live in his parents’ house, and can reside there only at their mercy’.
However, if the children are abusive, the parents have a blanket right to evict them.This is as per the rulings of various high courts in cases involving senior citizens, who appealed to the courts on being harassed by their kids. The eviction holds as much for a married and unmarried son, as it does for a daughter, and even the son-in-law or daughter-in-law.
Does the property have to be self-acquired?
In 2017, the Delhi High Court ruled that the elderly parents who are abused or mistreated by children can evict them from any type of property, not just a selfacquired one. The property can be self-acquired, ancestral or even rented, as long as the parents are in its legal possession. This is an improvisation of the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act 2007, which specified that the children could be evicted only from a self-acquired property of the parents.
Do evicted kids have a legal right over property?
Even if the parents evict a child from their house, there is no legal concept of disowning an adult child in India. In case of a selfacquired property, the parents can disinherit a child by cutting him out of the will.
However, in case of an ancestral property, the parents have no control since the child has a right to it by virtue of birth and they cannot cut the kid out of the property’s ownership in a will. If a parent dies intestate, the self-acquired property will go to the legal heirs. So, even if the parent-child relationship is bad and the child has been evicted, he can acquire the property as a legal heir.
What’s the procedure for evicting children?
An elderly parent can simply file an application to the Deputy Commissioner or District Magistrate of his district to evict abusive children. In Delhi, the application is forwarded to the Sub-Divisional Magistrate, who has to send back the report with final orders within 21 days.
If the property is not vacated within 30 days, the DC can have it evicted forcibly. As per a high court ruling, the Senior Citizens Maintenance Tribunal also has the power to order the eviction of children who are harassing their elderly parents.
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