Mr. Anuj Awasthi was having an urgent fund requirement, so he decided to sell his property. When the property registration date was around the corner, he realised that the original Sale Deed is missing. He was wondering what would be the impact of this on the sale of his property and how he can obtain a copy of the property documents/sale deed?
Property documents, if lost or stolen or misplaced, may impact you both in monetary as well as non-monetary terms. Without a sale deed, it becomes difficult to carry any transaction on the property such as buy or sale of the property or banks may not grant you a loan against the property, etc. Sale deed also plays a vital role as it mandates the owner of the property to certify that the property for sale if free from any lien and any encumbrance. In this post, let’s have a look at the procedure to get a duplicate copy of the property title documents/sale deed.
As mentioned above, if the property documents or sale deed is misplaced it becomes a daunting task to make any transaction on the property, and you will require a duplicate copy of the sale deed to transact. The below procedure needs to be followed for obtaining a copy of the original property documents/sale deed:
The first thing you are required to do is file an FIR (First Information Report) for the missing documents. The FIR has to be filed by the property owner only, and it should be quoted in the report that the property papers have been lost or misplaced or stolen. It should be noted that the FIR will be considered valid only if it has been stamped by the duty officer along with the police station stamp and the signature of the duty officer and also a serial number had been allotted to the report.
It is important that you keep a copy of the FIR (First Information Report) safely with you as it may be required at a later stage when you want to sell the property and the buyer may be interested in it.
Note: As per the recent orders from the Supreme Court, all the police stations from across the states & union territories are required to upload the FIR (First Information Report) on the police or government portal within 24 hours of the filing of the report in the police station. So, after registering your FIR in the police station, you can check the details and status of your report online.
After filing the FIR, you are required to place an advertisement in an English newspaper and any of the local/regional newspaper regarding the loss of the property documents. You should clearly mention the details of the documents and your contact details in the advertisement. In certain cases, you may have to produce a copy of the FIR by the newspaper agencies to publish the Ad for the loss of property documents.
Once the advertisement has been published in the newspaper, you should wait for the prescribed time mentioned in the advertisement to see if someone finds the property documents and hand it over to you. Usually, this waiting period could be between 2-3 weeks.
Note: It is required that you keep a copy of the advertisement for future use.
If you do not get the property documents even after publishing the advertisement, then the next step you need to follow is to prepare an Affidavit on a stamp paper regarding the loss of the property documents. It is required that you clearly mention the details of the lost property documents/sale deed on the affidavit and put your signature on it. You can also attach a copy of the FIR and the advertisement published in the newspaper. Documents then need to be attested and registered with a notary.
You now need to contact the Sub-Registrar’s Office (SRO) for obtaining the certified copy of the original sale deed. For this, you have to submit a written application along with the application form i.e. Form 22 to the SRO. The form can be downloaded from the department’s portal, or you can also get the form from the SRO. You are also required to submit the following documents along with the application form:
Identity proof
Copy of the FIR/police complaint
Copy of Ads and affidavit
Other relevant documents proving your ownership of the property
You also have to pay the prescribed charges to the Sub-Registrar’s Office to obtain the copy. After the verification of all the documents, SRO will issue you a certified copy of the sale deed. However, this may take some time. Once you obtain the copy of the sale deed, you can use it as a substitute for the original.
If your bank misplaces the property documents, you can submit a written request to the bank regarding the same and maintain a copy of their reply. In this scenario as well you have to file a police complaint and publish an advertisement in the newspapers regarding the loss of the documents.
You can claim the compensation from the bank for the charges incurred, as it is their responsibility to keep your credentials safe. If you want to sell the property, it is the responsibility of the bank to provide a suitable indemnity and prospective buyers in such a scenario.
If the documents are not registered with the sub-registrar and the buyer have signed an agreement with the builder, then it is the responsibility of the builder to provide the duplicate copy of the documents.
It is crucial that you keep your property documents/sale deed at a safe place because if you misplace them, you have to go through a cumbersome and time-consuming process along with paying some charges to obtain the copy of the sale deed.
