Gift Deed Drafting & Registration

Overview

A gift deed transfers property to someone without any payment in return. It is the usual route when parents give a house to a child, siblings arrange family property among themselves, or someone wants to give a plot to a spouse. Because no money changes hands, people sometimes assume a simple letter on stamp paper will do. For immovable property it will not.

Under the Transfer of Property Act, a gift of immovable property has to be made through a written instrument signed by the donor, attested by at least two witnesses and registered. The person receiving the gift must also accept it while the donor is alive and capable of giving it. A deed that skips any of these steps can be challenged later, often by relatives who were not part of the decision.

Stamp duty on gifts depends on the state and often on how closely the donor and the recipient are related, and some states charge much lower duty for gifts within the family. Tax is a separate matter, since income tax rules treat gifts from certain relatives differently from gifts from others, so it is worth checking before the deed is signed. We draft the gift deed, arrange the witnesses and the registration appointment, and point out issues such as a property that is mortgaged or jointly owned, where the donor may not be able to give it away alone.