One of the benefits of buying an apartment , house or any property instead of renting it is that in addition to being one of the best options to invest your money, you can have access to the property deeds. But, if you have lost this invaluable document, you need to continue reading the topic How to locate a deed to my property or house and obtain a copy if I lost it or do not have it.
How to locate a deed to my property or house and obtain a copy if I lost it or do not have it
It is well known that, when the deed of a house or other property is signed, the notary delivers a copy of the document, but that it has the same validity as the original document.
So, obviously the first thing to do to recover the deed to your property is to go to the Notary , as if the property belonged to a relative who has died and you do not know where the deed of the house is.
It is interesting and even beneficial that in fact, the original property deed is in the custody of the Notary, in order to protect it from manipulations and forgeries .
This is something advantageous because as the responsibility of the notaries is to have the original deed under their protection, providing legal security to the owners, since whenever they need it they can request a copy.
How should I request the deeds that I have lost?
To obtain a copy of the deeds that you have lost, all you have to do is go to the notary who formalized the property purchase process, provide him with the protocol date and the signature date.
Done this way, it is easier for the notary to quickly locate the deeds to your property or house and give you a copy of those documents. When you are at the Notary, then you can request two different types of copies of the deeds: the first is the authorized copy, which has the same validity as the original because it is signed by the notary.
The other type of copy is the simple copy, which does not have the same value as the original deed because it does not have the notary’s signature, but in the same way it serves to carry out various procedures without problems .
One aspect worth noting is that the authorized copy and the plain copy differ in price, where in the authorized copy, the price of the same will depend on how long the document is . It also depends on the age of the document, as some notaries charge an additional fee annually for keeping documents that are many years old.
Disadvantages when requesting a copy of the deeds of a property
I lost my property deeds and I don’t remember when I signed it
If you read well what we mentioned a few paragraphs ago, to obtain a copy of the deeds from the notary you must provide the date on which you signed the document.
In case you do not remember when you signed it, you have at least two options that will help you solve this great problem:
- If the deed is registered in the Property Registry , you will only have to ask for a simple copy, since it says on what date you signed it and who was the notary who was there during the process. To obtain this copy, you can do it by going to the Property Registry in person, which is cheaper or doing the procedure online, which is more expensive but more convenient.
- If you did not register the deed in the Property Registry, it makes the process difficult, because the Notary’s Office implements an inventory system and uses an inventory control system where without the exact date you signed it is almost impossible for the notary to find it; the only thing you could do is provide an approximate date that you remember.
I lost the deeds and the notary no longer works at the Notary’s Office
If the notary who guarded your deeds is no longer at the Notary or does not work there anymore, don’t worry, your documents are safe because they stay at the Notary where you signed them and you are only assigned another notary.
