5 steps to get duplicate documents in case lost Selling Guide

Property Papers - this is the only proof that your house belongs to you legally. Imagine, you wake up one day and realise that you have actually misplaced the most important document!!

Unfortunately, selling a property with a missing paper is a tedious task. In case of a lost document, you will have to get a duplicate and this will actually cost you a lot of money. Home loans are not easily granted on such properties but after the verification of all the duplicate documents, the bank might decide to grant a loan. However, the procedure for getting a legally-certified duplicate copy for your property is manageable.

Following are the steps one must follow to get duplicate documents:

File an FIR

A first information report (FIR) should be filed with the police by the owner as soon as possible. It must clearly state that the property documents have been misplaced, lost or stolen.

Advertise in a newspaper

An advertisement in an English daily newspaper and a vernacular newspaper must be published, declaring the loss of property documents. The owner must wait for 15 days to see if someone finds the documents and returns the same.

Prepare an undertaking/ Register with a notary

Next, the undertaking has to be prepared on stamp paper, stating the loss, along with the published text in the newspaper and FIR number. The notary will register and attest the documents, which will make an undertaking legal. Further, the undertaking needs to be registered, attested and notarized.

Obtain a duplicate Sale Deed

To obtain the duplicate copy of the sale deed, the owner must go to the registrar’s office, where the property was registered at the time of purchase. The necessary fee must be paid and all the relevant documents must be provided at the registrar’s office.

Maintain the proof of action taken

The owner must maintain his proof of action to trace back the lost property document, one should maintain a copy of the police complaint, the newspaper ad, the undertaking as well as the duplicate sale deed for future reference.

If the property was mortgaged and the bank misplaces property documents then at first they must notify the owner and secondly, the bank should take the responsibility of obtaining the property documents and pay for the same.

Obtaining a duplicate set of documents might cost a bit but one needs to make these expenses to get the duplicate copy of the property documents and to ascertain no hiccups in future.

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