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:
a)
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.
b)
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.
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.
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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