[Resolved]  ICICI Home Finance Company Ltd — ICICI HFC misplacing property documents, not able to give back to customer on loan closure

Address:

Maharashtra

*1) *COMPLAINT:*
I had taken home loan from ICICI in Apr, 2000. At the time of registration, bank had taken my written consent and had submitted to sub registar office that property documents will be sent to ICICI HFC and property owner will not claim/ collect it.
I foreclosed loan on 23–Oct-12
Now bank is unable to give original property registration document back to me.
I have been following up with bank for last 6+ months. At present, bank is not only trying to get rid off from their responsibility of handing over documents back to me but also doing very rude communication in spite of fact that issue is created because of ICICI HFC ignorance and negligence on collecting property documents from SRO timely.

Details:
At the time of document collection on 10-Nov-12, I noticed that my original property registration papers are missing. ICICI HFC- Mahalaxmi office (in a first place was not aware and further not bothered about keeping property registration document) said that ICICI does not keep original property registration documents and that is always with customer (!!!!) and hence they do not have it.
Immediately I logged complaint at ICICI customer care number on 10-Nov-12. Complaint number- SR[protected] .
Later raised the complaint on mail ID of ICICI MD and Chanda Kochhar on 12-Dec-12 as there was no response/ movement from ICICI end over a month.
Back-n-forth mail communication happened with ICICI HFC senior management ID. ICICI appointed their representative from their legal team to visit SRO and track the case. I was asked to visit SRO along with this representative and I visited SRO twice in Jan, 13 and Feb, 13. On the other hand mail communication continued; with every mail bank giving next date for update.
Post my 2nd visit to SRO, ICICI HFC representative demanded Rs.10,000 from me to fetch documents from SRO. I intimated bank on mail for same and refused to pay this amount. Bank stand post that changed completely, asking me to then take the case directly with SRO and as if document taking in their custody was not at all their responsibility…i.e. either pay this Rs.10,000 or we will not do anything. Now bank has reached to a stage where very rude mailer is sent to customer stating as per them case is closed and customer is creating nuisances to them by keep on raising same issue.
Bank had also tried to give excuse on some SRO operational issue….i.e. Property registration was done on 19-Apr-2000. In 2004 SRO had raised order to pay additional Rs. 1,000 over the difference in registration fees. My lawyer had paid this difference amount in 7days of receiving SRO order. Now in 2013 bank is saying that they did follow up with SRO but SRO had not given them documents. Other than this generic statement bank could neither provide details on communication received from SRO, date on which it is received, intimations/ warnings sent to customer on challenges being faced by them in fetching documents from SRO etc.. neither bank has any justification what happened post Jan-2004 till Oct-2012 on their attempts to track (if any) and get documents from SRO.

2) *RELIEF:*
ICICI HFC to give me my original property registration documents because…a) Collecting documents from SRO was completely ICICI HFC’s responsibility considering written consent taken from me and submitted to SRO.
b) Bank kept totally ignorant on whether they have received documents or not for complete loan period of 12+ years. Bank front officer tells customer that bank does not keep original registration copy. This is sheer negligence and careless approach shown by bank in spite of hefty interest amounts charged to its customers on loans.
c) Bank should also be penalized for making rude communication with customer on issue created by them only and to customer who has paid all their loan on time without defaulting for any single time.