EFFECT OF LOSS OF PROPERTY DOCUMENTS

The documents relating to a property inter alia include title deed, mother deed, encumbrance certificate, khatha, property tax payment receipts, building plan etc. These documents may be original or may be extracts or Photostat copies. Some of these documents are in the nature of evidencing payments, authorization, permission, approval etc.

More often than not, you may be noticing advertisements in news papers regarding the loss of property documents with a lucrative offer to suitably reward the finder upon return of the same.

Reasons for non - availability of documents

The reasons for non-availability of documents may be many. The following are few such instances:

1. The original title deeds might have been kept in the office and got mixed up with other documents. In this case, even though the original title deed is not lost, it is owing to the fact that the documents are not traceable even after search, the necessity to take further steps for protecting his interest by the owner does arise.
2. The original title deed might have been lost, stolen or might have come into wrong hands. In such cases, there is every possibil­ity of a fraudulent transaction being effected by making use of the original title deed by the possessor of such a document unless the real owner acts swiftly to protect his interest over the property.
3. c) There may be some cases wherein a person has mortgaged his property by deposit of title deeds as security for the loan obtained by him. On the basis of a certified copy of the title deed, he may sell his property without redeeming the mortgage. In such circumstances, the innocent pur­chaser will not get title over the property since the mortgagee has a first charge.
4. d) The property documents presented for registration in the Sub-Registrar's office are to be collected within a reasonable time but not later than two years since the documents remain uncollected in the Sub-Registrar's office can be weeded out after the lapse of two years period. In case a person fail to collect the property document within a period of two years and the said document is weeded out, then the said person at the most can get a letter from the Sub-Registrar's Office confirming the submission of the document for registration with a clarification that the said document has been weeded out as per rules since it was not collected from the office within the stipulated period.

Partition Deed

In a partition of the family properties, if a particular property falls to the share of more than one person, then all of them cannot have the original title deed of such prop­erty in their custody. Therefore, as a precaution it shall be clearly men­tioned in the partition deed that the original deed shall remain with a particular individual who shall declare and under- take to produce the original deed for verification whenever requisitioned by other sharers of the property. For use and custody of persons who do not get possession of the original title deed, they can obtain duplicate copy of the document at the time of registration.

Deed and Documents

To know the implications of the loss of property documents, it is better to understand as to what is meant by a deed and what is the difference between a deed and a document. A deed is a written document or instrument under which the right over a property is transferred from the transferor to the transferee. It may be noted that all deeds are documents but all documents are not deeds. The word "deed" has a wider meaning. It is to be properly exe­cuted, signed and delivered. Normally, it is registered. Examples of deed would include sale deed, settlement deed, exchange deed, partition deed, gift deed, release deed, etc. Examples of documents other than deeds would include photographs, maps, building plans, writings on various materials and substances, khatha, encumbrance certificate, tax paid receipt, unsigned records, certificates, etc.

Effect of loss of documents

Loss of original title deeds may lead to a lot of complications, affect or impede free dealings with the property causing great anxiety, stress and trepidation for the person who has lost these documents. Loss of title deed reduces the strength of owner­ship title of the owner. The intending purchaser or the mortgagee may suspect the genuineness of the title of the vendor or mortgagor. The moot question is 'why do they suspect?' and the answer to this is that the deposit of title deeds does not require registration. By merely depositing the title deeds, a person can create mortgage of the property to avail loan from banks and financial institutions. The period of redemption of mort­gage is 30 years. Suppose a person purchases a property for a valuable sale consideration ignoring that the vendor does not have original title deed and suppose at some earlier stage the property has been mort­gaged by deposit of the title docu­ment by its owner, then irrespective of the fact the purchaser has pur­chased the property for valuable consideration he will not get rightful ownership over the property but, the mortgagee has a first charge over the property though ownership is changed. In most of the cases, lending banks do refuse to grant loan in the absence of original title deed and the intending purchaser may back out of the transaction in the absence of the original title deed.

It is obvious that in most of the cases people would become nervous when they lose their property documents since they have a feeling that their title over the property is lost forever with the loss of property documents and thereby they con­clude that they have lost their right to deal with property any longer. It is the loss of the original deeds such as sale deed, gift deed, will, mortgage deed etc., that will have impact since by virtue of these documents, the finder of the document may misuse the same. But, loss of document does not deprive the owner of his ownership over the property, if necessary precautions are taken well in time. Loss of the original title deed requires urgent action.

Loss of documents such as encumbrance certificate, Khata certificate, tax paid receipt etc., does not have serious implications since it is possible to make up the loss of these documents by applying and getting certificates afresh from the concerned authority.

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