What To Do If You’ve Lost Your Property Documents

Housing loans are proficient to cater to the dream of purchasing an opulent house. With the infusion of advanced technology into the lending sector, availing a lowest housing loan interest rate has embellished as a cakewalk. Through online procedures carry forward the application process from the comfort of your own home. Although you are obligated to submit a set of documents to get quick approval of your home loan. Notable documents that play an influential role in home loan approval are property documents and credit reports. Final approval and the latest home loan interest rate are gleaned from home loan documents. Regardless of the type of home loan, i.e., land purchase, construction, renovation, or a home loan for women, broaching of property documents is inescapable. This will make you a creditworthy applicant to concede a home loan.

But presumably, you lost your property documents. What next? How will you convince the lender that you are the sole owner of the property? They are vital when it comes to the sale or purchase of property. Lenders won’t be able to approve or sanction a loan against property in the immanence of property documents. Thus, it is extremely cardinal to keep the documents out of harm’s way.

That being said, no matter how cautious you are sometimes the documents get misplaced. Being in the midst of such a situation can be daunting, but there is a way out to everything. Here is a rundown of steps you can consider perambulating the ball game. Just follow up the depicted steps and get a duplicate deed of the property.

File an FIR

As soon as you get to know that you have misplaced your property documents, head towards the within reach police station and lodge an FIR (First Information Report). The FIR will consist of certain details including the actual circumstance i.e., misplacement, lost or stolen, and location of incidence. In addition, always keep a copy of the filed FIR for future purposes. Things are uncertain and you can’t predict when you might need this copy of FIR over time.  

Issue a Notice within Newspapers

After filing the FIR, the very next crucial step is to put a notice within newspapers. The lost notice can be highly helpful if anyone finds the lost documents. Be mindful of the fact that the notice should contain certain vital details such as property details, coupled with the lost document circumstance. When you are done with publishing your notice, you are ought to wait for a tenure of 15 days. There are chances that the found person returns the documents within this period. Take into account that the notice must be published in both i.e., Hindi as well as English newspapers. Additionally, count on publishing it in the regional newspaper.

Acquire a Duplicate Share Certificate

In the event of the property being a part of any housing society, the personnel will have to acquire a duplicate share certificate. The same will be obtained from the RWA- Resident Welfare Association. Write an application in the favour of RWA and submit it to the associated together with the copy of lodged FIR and published notice. After receiving and verifying the same, the RWAs designated member will set a meeting with you and will go through the submitted set of proof. You will have to pay a notable fee for issuing the duplicate certificate.

Make Things Legal

If you are doing all things in an unethical way just to get the property documents quickly, then step back. Consider opting for legal steps rather than counting on alternatives. Put together an undertaking, especially on stamp paper which must include the basic property details, name of lost documents, the lodged FIR, in addition to the newspaper notice. Next to this, consider the registration part followed by attestation, and submission of the undertaking in the registrar’s office.

All set to Avail Duplicate Documents of the Property

Once you are done with the aforementioned steps, directly apply for the duplicate documents of the property, sales deed. The same must be carried out at the registrar’s office. Moreover, you will have to carry a copy of the lodged police complaint, published newspaper notice/advertisements, the acquired duplicate share certificate from RWA, along with the attested undertaking. Submit the set of these documents to the registrar’s office for further procedure. One more vital thing you cannot escape from is the payment of an imposed fee. You will have to pay a specific amount to get a duplicate sale deed.

Things to Remember

  1. If you kept your property documents as mortgages to the bank or kept them for safekeeping in a bank, and they got misplaced by them, then you aren’t responsible to pay for the duplicate deed. Bank will be liable for the compensation, as it wasn’t your fault.
  2. With technology infusion, you can file online complaints, especially for this case scenario. Thus, save your time and efforts by lodging an online complaint. Check for the availability of the online complaint option in your city. 
  3. Only the owner of the property is liable to file the complaint or FIR about the lost documents. No other associated family member is allowed to do the same.

After knowing the basic things that you must do, in case you misplace your property documents, there is a lot more to know. If you are willing to sell your property or get finance from lenders on your property then you will require the property documents. All you can do is apply for the duplicate copy of the sale deed. Here is what you need to do to get the duplicate documents.

How To Get a Duplicate Copy Of Lost Sale Deed?

The sale deed acts as the foremost proof when it comes to property ownership, and thus you must be tremendously careful to keep it safe. But have you ever thought about what you will actually do if you somehow lose your property documents? Well, there is no need to panic as you do have the option to get a duplicate copy of your sale deed. In case you fail to get back the documents, apply for the duplicate one and remove unnecessary hurdles interrupting your access to finance.

However, we will recommend you start with the process as soon as possible so that your work doesn’t get delayed. So, here is a go-through of the procedure of availing duplicate sale deeds.

Before we move further with the discussion, it is vital to know that initially, you should put forward steps to find the lost/stolen/misplaced property documents. Then only you should count on getting a duplicate sale deed. As aforementioned, in the first place, you will have to lodge FIR against the lost documents, followed by the publishing of notice in national dailies. You can’t directly get to the registrar for the issuing of duplicate documents since you will have to submit notable documents as proof.

So, here is the step by step proceeding to receive a duplicate sale deed:

  1. File an FIR in the local police station regarding the lost property documents. Not only for the property documents but it applies for all case scenarios when you lose something essential. Provide the notable details of the property so that they can easily look for the documents that are specifically yours. Police will try their best to trace the documents especially when the reason is theft. If the officials fail to find your documents, then you will get a non-traceable certificate from them. This document will act as a crucial asset to come by duplicate deed.
  2. Advertise a lost notice in a national daily. Consider doing the same in leading newspapers including Hindi, English, and newspapers of regional language. It can be seen as a next step to find the documents in addition to the next step to get your duplicate deed too. The advertisement will consist of necessary details of the property. The key idea is to let the general public know that you have lost your documents and if anyone finds it, he/she can return the same to the mentioned person. Finally, if you still don’t get your docs to get in touch with the sub-registrar. 
  3. Now you are finally done with the search operations of your document and the next thing you have to do is preparing an affidavit. Write a letter in regard to the registrar where the property is actually registered. Inform them that you have misplaced your sale deed and other specifics related to the loss incident. Moreover, write an affidavit mentioning that whatever you are saying is true and paste the copy of FIR and published advertisement as proof. 
  4. Visit the registrar’s office in person and submit the prepared documents for further processing. The designated officials will examine the submitted documents to know their authenticity of the documents. Next to this, your application for availing of the duplicate copy will get approval. Pay the mentioned charges to get the duplicate deed and within the next 15-30 days you will receive your duplicate deed at your doorstep. 

Although, you might have to make notable efforts and invest some amount to get your property documents, and it is worth your investment and time. The procedure might be a little daunting, but you will get a legally- certified sales deed of the property. The document will be enough for getting finance from banks and finance providers. During the verification process, the lenders will get to know about the authenticity of the documents. But it is recommended to not let the situation arise by keeping your property document safe.

Chitra Chaudhary A stellar writer with over 3 years of experience, Chitra loves to delve deep into all the nitty-gritty of finance, government and other technical topics people usually dread to attempt. With a masters in Computer Science, Chitra alchemises her analytical and creative prowess to manifest some of the most awesome articles for Square Yards.
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