Properties Or Assets That Can Be Classified As The Assets Of A HUF
Next, in this unit, we will learn the classification of assets or properties of HUF.
- Ancestral property or assets inherited from father, grandfather or great grandfather.
- Any property or assets received on partition of a larger HUF of which the coparcener was a member in the past.
- Property or assets acquired with the aid of joint family property.
- Separate property or assets of a coparcener, blended with the family property.
- Any assets or property received as a gift by the HUF from close relatives or friends.
- Assets bequeathed by a Will that specifically favours the HUF.
- It is noteworthy that the term ‘Coparcenary Property or Joint Family Property’ is wider in connotation than the term ‘ancestral property’. While an ‘ancestral property’ is the one inherited from father, grandfather or great grandfather, in which the share is allotted on partition;
- 'Coparcenary property or joint family property’ is the one acquired by the coparceners with joint efforts – so for example, father and sons would be joint family and hold coparcenary property.
- There may be an instance where a single male member in the family having no ancestral or coparcenary property, receives gifts from relatives or friends of family members of family.
If the single male member of such a family decides to add this gifted property into joint family property, then such property would neither be ancestral nor coparcenary property but certainly be a HUF property. - While there can be a gift or a Will for the benefit of a HUF, it is immaterial whether the giver is male or female, whether he or she is a member of the family or an outsider.
What matters is that the gifted property is for the benefit of the whole family. - The Karta of the HUF can make a gift of an ancestral immovable property within a reasonable limit keeping in view the total extent of the property.
The Karta can even gift his self-acquired property to the branch HUF of his Son, through a Will, which will then become the ancestral property of the son’s HUF.
