Have you lost your property documents and don't know what to do? It is really a very serious problem since such documents can be misused by the people who find them.
You should try to trace out and regain the documents or at least procure certified duplicate copies by following certain procedures. Here are some useful tips which may be of much help to you in facing the situation.
File an F.I.R. with Police
The first thing you should do on knowing about the loss is to immediately file a complaint with the nearest police station stating that you have lost your documents. You should give full details of the documents, how you lost them, time and place of such loss and whatever points you may remember about them.
Keep a copy of the FIR with you as it will be needed at the time of disposal of your property and one more copy for submitting at the registrar office for obtaining a duplicate sale deed. You can also ask for a certificate from the police disclosing that they could not trace the documents, in spite of their best efforts.
Place an Advertisement in the Newspapers
After lodging the FIR, you are required to place an advertisement in some leading newspapers regarding the loss.
Keep the paper cuttings of the published advertisements for your record. You may have to wait for 15 days to see if anybody finds the document and returns them to you before taking the next step.
Get an Undertaking registered with Notary
After lodging police complaint and placing the advertisement, you must get an undertaking prepared on a stamped paper stating that your property documents have been lost, or misplaced or stolen.
Further, you may have to acknowledge that all the facts mentioned in the undertaking are true to the best of your knowledge. You will have to submit the copies of the FIR and advertisement along with the undertaking to the notary office to have it attested and registered by the Notary. You may incur some expenses for getting it notarised.
Obtain Duplicate Property Document
After going through these steps, you are now eligible to obtain a duplicate certified copy of your original property documents.
For this purpose, you need to approach the registrar office where your original property documents were registered at the time of purchase. You may need to fill out a form or submit an application in writing for issuance of a duplicate copy of the sale deed.
Copies of the FIR, advertisement clippings and your notarised undertaking need to be deposited along with a certain amount of fees for obtaining the duplicate certified documents.
The registrar will then issue a certified duplicate sale deed to prove your ownership of the said property. This duplicate sale deed will help to obtain loans from banks or make other transactions of your property.
Share Certificate from Housing Society
If you are a member of a housing society and lost your share certificate, you can obtain the duplicate paper from the society on providing the copies of the FIR and advertisement.
Initially, you will have to apply with a request to issue you a duplicate share certificate and place an indemnity bond undertaking to make good any loss that may take place if original papers are presented at a later stage.
The society will put up your application for approval in their meeting. After the approval, they will issue a dup-licate share certificate after charging some nominal fees. You may also apply for a no-objection certificate from the society, which can help you in obtaining loans from banks.
Obtain Title Report from registrar
It is also advisable to obtain a title report of the property document, especially in the case of old properties. It may involve hiring of the services of legal consultant or surveyor to conduct a thorough search and get ascertained that the property is free of encumbrances.
Since the deputy registrar’s office maintains full records of all property transactions, it can be easily obtained even though it costs some additional burden on you. But the relief that you can get from this title report is plenty.
What to do if Bank misplaces your deeds?
If your property documents are lost by your banker, then you need to ask them to notify in writing.
You may ask for indemnification from them. In this case also, you need to lodge FIR, place advertisement and follow the same process. But all such costs in this case shall be borne by the bank.
(The writer is CEO of BankBazaar.com)
