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Thinking about buying a freehold property? You have to be careful about a lot of things other than just purchasing the property. Immovable properties such as a home are not just places to live in, they are fundamental needs that we all have and need to be met. In most cases, people have to spend their life savings to own one. But all of your efforts can pass in vain if you are not careful enough to validate the authenticity of a property’s ownership.

Where the seller’s sales pitch may sound very convincing regarding the faithfulness of the deal to you, it is possible that the property might be burdened with mortgages or has charges that you are not aware of. Real estate scams are a real thing in our country and property-related suits can last for a long time as far as Bangladesh is concerned. That is why a sensitive issue like this should be dealt with carefully and with very close inspection.

In the following, we will discuss what are the documents that one must possess to validate the authenticity of the property and hence, its ownership.

Look for all the documents

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Ask the seller for all the documents

One of the most crucial aspects, in order to validate the authenticity of a property’s ownership, is the documents of the property that the owner is entitled to. That is why, when purchasing the property, you need to check or ask the seller for the following documents:

Title Deed or Ownership Deed

This document says that you have registered the property and taken ownership of it. Be it purchased or gifted, one has to sign the Title Deed to register the property to be able to claim the ownership of it. You can check the genuineness of this document from the relevant sub-registry office. And by authenticating this document you will know the actual ownership of the property. However, this is not applicable to you if you inherit the property. Check the Title Deed or Partition Deed (Bonton Nama) of the previous owner for that matter. And to validate the authenticity of a property’s ownership, this document beares the foremost importance.

All Bia Deeds

Bia Deeds are the title deeds of the property of the previous owners. Bia Deeds basically establish a chain of ownership that plays a pivotal role when you purchase a property. And you continue that by establishing your claim over the property.

Khatiyan

Khatiyan (Record of Rights), Sottolipi, or Porcha is a document for identifying land. The purpose of this document is to ascertain the ownership, possession, and assess Land Development Tax. But how does this work? – Every sub-district of a district is divided into small plots otherwise known as Mouza. And when there is a need to divide that Mouza into further plots, a Khatiyan is prepared. This Khatiyan then determines the land type, portion of an owner, easement right, amount of Land Development Tax payable, mode of paying tax, etc. 

There are several types of Khatiyans including – 

  • C.S. (Cadastral Survey)
  • S.A. (State Acquisition Survey)
  • P.S. (Pakistan Survey)
  • R.S. (Revisional Survey)
  • B.S. (Bangladesh Survey)
  • Dhaka City Jorip
  • Diara Jorip, etc.

Which of these aforementioned Khatiyans is/are applicable for you is dependent entirely on the location of the territory where the property is.

Mutation Khatiyan

Mutation Khatiyan plays one of the most important roles in trying to validate the authenticity of a property’s ownership. This is a special kind of Khatiyan also known as “Namjari”. This is really important for two different reasons. Number one, Khatiyan is always prepared through a survey but as it turns out, it doesn’t always happen. And if the property is transferred or inherited in-between two surveys then it is mandatory that you mutate and replace the current owner’s name with the old owner in the Khatiyan. Number two, it is necessary for a holding to be created to pay the land tax (Khajna). 

There should be three different documents of this mutation that you should validate from the AC land office.

> Mutation proposal letter (Namjari Jomavag prostabpotro)
> Duplicate Carbon Rashid (DCR)
> Mutation Khatiyan

Without these documents, no one can transfer the ownership to another party.

No Object Certificate (NOC) & Non-Encumbrance Certificate (NEC)

It is very important that you check these certificates before you opt for the actual transaction. Because if you don’t, you might get into trouble. For instance, there might be an encumbrance that the seller may not disclose with you during the transaction. So collect these documents from the relevant sub-registry office so that if you end up selling the property at any point, no one can object to your decision.

Land Rent Receipts

Every property owner in Bangladesh is obligated to pay land rent yearly. So expect all the receipts to be shown (up to the latest year) from the seller. To confirm whether the seller has properly been paying the rent or not visit the corresponding office. Checking this one is particularly important because you can’t pay any land rent if there is any problem with the property.

Some other things

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Verify the building plan and approval letter

Other than these aforementioned documents, there are some other things that need to be checked thoroughly to validate the authenticity of a property’s ownership. For instance, tax must be paid on due time and a record should be present with all the documents. Otherwise, the government can seize the property at any time. If it is a building, flat, or apartment that you are planning to purchase, the buyer should verify the plan and the approval letter of the building to see if it is constructed according to plan. Conduct further research regarding mortgage or any other encumbrances.

Verify the property physically

Now the last thing that remains is to physically authenticate the property and see if there are any issues or not. This entire time we have dealt with the documents of the property that exists only on the paper. So it is your foremost duty to check if there is actually a building/land or not which you would be surprised that in many cases, transactions have fallen through only to be discovered at the end that there is no property to transact. After this final check, there shouldn’t be any issues regarding the authenticity of the property.

If all of this checking and rechecking seems hectic to you, that is because it actually is. The journey to validate the authenticity of a property’s ownership is an arduous task in our country. That is why an expert’s opinion, advice, or help is essential to checking all the documents and validating their authenticity. With Bproperty on your side, you don’t have to worry about any of these. Be you a buyer or a seller, at Bproperty we have highly skilled officials who will manage and deal with the property transaction for you so that you don’t have to go through all the hassle.

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