Sir,

I request your advice regarding a problem that has been bothering me for years. The details are given below.

I was working in Uttarakhand. I purchased a house in Chennai in 1995 from an individual vendor.

I had taken an EC before purchase and it was clear. No pending encumberances were shown in EC. I took a loan from HDFC, Delhi based on copies of earlier documents and EC by submitting collateral securities like share certificates etc.

I came from Uttarakhand registered the Sale Deed and submitted the sale deed and other documents requested by HDFC and recovered the collateral securities. At the time of registration vendor gave a folder saying that the old documents are in the folder. In good faith I took the folder without checking and left it with my brother who was in Chennai and left for Uttarakhand on the next day. My brother took possession of the house and lived in it for many years till he purchased his own flat.

I was raw in the legal issues related to property transactions. Since these transactions were completed smoothly I was under the impression for many years that there are no problems.

About 2 to 3 years back during a general discussion on frauds and issues related to property transactions. I came to know of the importance of original documents, mortgages etc. I decided to check whether everything is in order for my Chennai house.

When I checked I found that the folder handed over by the vendor had only photocopies of the documents. I thought the originals may be with HDFC. I requested HDFC for a list of documents submitted and I came to know that only the latest original Sale Deed of 1995 executed in my favour is deposited with HDFC. The other earlier sale deeds were not with them.

I again took EC and found that the vendor had taken a loan of Rs 1,50,000/- from a small time finance company in Chennai by giving a promissory note dt 16/3/95 and deposited the earlier original title deeds as security and registered the transaction in the subregistrar office. .

I took the certified copy of the registered deed and confirmed that the earlier sale deeds were indeed mortgaged.

I tried to locate the mortgagee based on the address in the registered deed and came to know that the company had wound up long ago and there is no forwarding address. I am not able to trace the vendor as well.

I have taken certified copies of the missing title deeds. The house being more than 23 years old is in urgent need of major repair. As I am not staying in the house, I feel reluctant to invest money in repairs as I am not sure whether the property has any value due to the above problem and any further investment may be a waste.

I do not know whether the vendor cleared his loan and took back the original documents or having sold the house, he simply ignored paying the loan or he gave the original documents and my brother misplaced them.

I am even willing to pay back the loan if it will help.

Given these circumstances that 18 years have gone by since the earlier documents were mortgaged and the house is also in my possession for the past 18 years and both the vendor and mortgagee are not traceable what are the remedies available.

I will be very grateful if you could suggest some solution