'For any lender, home loans are sanctioned in the name of the homeowner so the responsibility of repayment lies with the borrower'
Do you have queries related to any aspect of home loans?
Gaurav Mohta, chief marketing officer, Home First Finance Company (external link) will answer your home loan queries.
Please mail your queries to getahead@rediff.co.in with the subject line 'Home Loan' and Gaurav will answer your home loan queries.
Tulika: My father is taking a home loan to buy a house for me. I would like to know if he can get the property registered on my name. He has a good credit score and will be paying off the loan of 20 lakh. He doesn't want to register the flat on his name and then spend another 5 lakh to re-register it in my name. So my question is, can he take the home loan but register the property in my name?
Gaurav Mohta: For any lender, home loans are sanctioned in the name of the homeowner so the responsibility of repayment lies with the borrower. So, you can have both of your names in the sale deed and apply for the home loan as co-applicants. That way your father’s bank account can be registered for repayment of home loan.
While this is the ideal solution, you can also choose to have the property registered in your father’s name along with the home loan. Once the home loan is paid off, he can create a gift deed for you to transfer the ownership.
Satendra Singh Patwal: I am having a home loan of Rs 21.50 lakh on floating rate @ 9.6% from HDFC LTD. Now ROI got down to 8.5 %. I am asking bank to reduce my ROI, BANK is taking some charge for it. Is it ok by law or not? Please help.
I have another home loan of Rs 4 lakh and repaying from last 5 years, now I want to close it, but bank is also demanding some charges for it and asking for my 6 months’ bank statement. Kindly give your suggestion/advice on it.
Gaurav Mohta: The increase/ decrease made to your interest rate would depend on your interest cycle as agreed upon with the lender. There is no mandate upon the bank / financial institutions to pass on the advantage/ disadvantage to you immediately. However, in your place I would be relieved if the interest rate has not been changed lately since last 3-4 rate revisions has consistently been on the upward side.
For your other loan, a lender is under their rights to ask for your bank statement for the last 6 months and foreclosure charges are also a policy they are allowed to charge.
In future I would suggest going through the terms and conditions offered by the lender closely since they are liable to disclose such charges. This can help you take a well-informed decision on choosing your lender.
Dibyendu Chakravarty: I bought a house in Hyderabad 10 years back and plan to pay off the loan by March this year.
I work in a central government institute and am eligible for a loan of 25 lakh with much lower EMI.
Can I avail this loan for my second house?
If not, what are the avenues available to me for availing the loan? Can I transfer my first house to my wife or daughter's name and then do I become eligible? Kindly suggest.
Gaurav Mohta: You can avail as many home loans in your name as you want as long as you are found eligible for the same. However, keep in mind that one property can only have one loan against it. So, to answer your question, you can surely take another home loan for your second house.
RPS Bhadauria: I booked a Flat with a builder in Kharghar -- New Mumbai and paid Rs 4.26 lakh by cheques in the year 2013. Builder has not started project and neither returned money nor responded to registered letters written to him. His office is protected by goons and they don’t allow anyone to meet the builder. This builder is not registered in RERA and he has done this with all those who have given him advances.
Please advise my course of action in this situation and whom to contact on this matter.
Gaurav Mohta: This seems like a legal dispute and I would suggest you reach out to a lawyer for the same.
Nageshwar Rao: I want to make Rs 10 lakh pre-payment against my home loan account, Rs 5 lakh for tenure reduction and Rs 5 lakh for EMI amount reduction. Please suggest first I should make payment for EMI amount reduction or tenure reduction for maximum benefit.
Gaurav Mohta: You can choose to do it either way as per what your lender allows or even pay the entire amount at once and use half amount for tenure reduction and half against EMI. However, whether you will be allowed to do the same and if yes, whether there are charges and fees applicable on the same is something that is completely at the discretion of your lender.
Ideally, one should choose a lender with customer friendly schemes such as zero foreclosure charges.
Note: The questions and answers in this advisory are published to help the individual asking the question as well the large number of readers who read the same.
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