Future prospect of flat purchased without original sale deed
Querist :
Anonymous
(Querist) 02 January 2024
This query is : Resolved
We are planning to purchase a flat in a housing co-op society from a close friend who had misplaced her original sale deed almost 20 years back. At that time,she had filed a FIR;and had collected a certified copy of sale deed. She did not issue any public notice at that time.To make things tension-free, we were thinking of the following course-1. The seller to issue a public notice in a leading Bengali; and a leading English newspaper (offline) through her advocate stating that:NOTICE is given on behalf of my client Smt. XXX, owner of Flat YYY. The original sale deed of this flat in the name of Smt. XXX has been reported to be lost / misplaced in the yr 2002; and since after waiting for 20y after lodging FIR, the original sale deed could be found, she is proceeding with selling this flat on the basis of certified copy of sale deed. Any person(s) having any claim in respect of the above referred property or part thereof by way of sale, exchange, mortgage, charge, gift, maintenance, inheritance, possession, lease, tenancy, sub tenancy, lien, license, hypothecation, transfer of title or beneficial interest under any trust right of prescription or pre-emptionor under any agreement or other disposition or under any decree, order or Awardor otherwise claiming, howsoever, are hereby reqd. to make the same known in writing along with the documentary proof thereof, to the undersigned (Advocate) at their office within 14 days from the date of publication hereof, failing which the flat's sell off shall be completed, without any reference to such claims and the claims if any, shall be deemed to have been given up or waived or abandoned. 2. After the passage of 14 days of the above public notice, we, ass prudent buyers should also issue a public notice offline through an advocate stating that Smt XXX has agreed to sell us, the flat at YYY free from all encumbrances. Any person having any right, title, interest, claim or demand of any nature whatsoever in respect of the said flat,and its allocated garage space, is hereby required to make the same known in writing along with documentary proof, thereof, to the undersigned within fourteen days from the date of publication hereof, failing which the negotiations shall be completed, without any reference to such claims and the claims if any, shall be deemed to have been given up or waived. 3.The seller to make a notarised undertaking with complete details of the property towards its proper identification; details of newspaper ad and police complaint alongwith complaint no., detail of the document lost. 4.Another notarised undertaking by the seller stating that she was unable to handover the original sale deed to the buyer as it was misplaced;and she will cooperate fully in future if any issue crops up. Also to mention that she has never taken any loan on this property/ nor was it mortgaged (no emcumbrances)
Is there anything more/different you advise?How imp is old sale deed if I sell this flat in future?
kavksatyanarayana
(Expert) 02 January 2024
You can obtain a certified copy of the sale deed. This is sufficient. You may publish a notice as you stated in the largest circulated daily newspaper.
T. Kalaiselvan, Advocate 
(Expert) 04 January 2024
It appears that you have taken adequate precautionary measures in this regard, in my opinion, this should suffice to establish title even in the absence of same.
