Must I be the owner to take a home loan?

- Rohan Verma

Only owners or co-owners are eligible for tax benefits on the repayment of a loan taken to acquire or construct a house property.

Therefore, if the property being acquired is in the name of your parents alone, you will not be eligible for any tax benefits on the loan taken to acquire the property.

I took a home loan and have been repaying the Equated Monthly Installments over the past year.

I would like to replace my name on the home with my mothers but continue paying the EMI. Can I still claim the tax benefits?

Or, can the loan be taken over by my parents?

- Shashikant 

Only owners or co-owners can claim tax benefits in respect of repayment of the loan taken to acquire the house property.

If you are neither the owner nor the co-owner of the apartment, you will not be eligible for any tax benefits on the loan repayments.

So, if you remove your name from the ownership you will not be in a position to claim the tax benefits on the loan repayments made by you.

The bank will allow your parents to take over the loan only if they determine that your parents are capable of repaying the loan out of their own income.

Also the period for repayment is likely to be reduced such that it coincides with the retirement of your parents. 

My father owns a plot of land and I, along with my brother, would like to take a loan and construct a home on it.

Can my brother and I apply for a joint loan to construct this house?  

- K Krishnaprasad

Yes you can.

But your father, as the owner of the land, will have to be a co-borrower for the loan.

Also, you will be able to avail of the tax deduction on the loan repayments only if you (and your brother) are owners or co-owner of the house property.