Q.State the three essential conditions that must be satisfied for a property's income to be chargeable under the head 'Income from House Property', with reference to Section 22.

Chargeability under this head turns on what the property is, who owns it, and how it is used by that owner.

All three conditions must be satisfied together, per Section 22.

Section 22 charges to tax the Annual Value of house property, subject to three conditions that must ALL be satisfied together:

1. The property must consist of a building, or land appurtenant to a building — vacant land held on its own, with no building on it, does not fall under this head.
2. The assessee must be the owner of the property — chargeability under this head follows OWNERSHIP, not occupation; a tenant who lives in a rented house and pays rent for it has no income to report under this head on account of that occupation.
3. The property must not be used by the owner for their own business or profession whose profits are chargeable to tax — such self-occupied business premises are excluded from this head from the outset, because the economic benefit of using that space is already reflected in the business's own taxable profit.

All three must hold together; a property failing even one — say, vacant land with no building, or a rented house occupied by a non-owner tenant, or a shop the owner runs their own business from — is simply outside this head's scope.

Students often assume chargeability follows OCCUPATION rather than OWNERSHIP — remember it is the owner, not the occupant, in whose hands income from a property is computed under this head, regardless of who actually lives there.