What to check before you buy land: title, khatian, mutation and encumbrance
Most land disputes in Bangladesh are created at the moment of purchase, by a buyer who checked nothing. This is what a proper pre-purchase check actually involves, and what each document does and does not tell you.
Why this matters more here than in most places
Land records in Bangladesh were built up through successive surveys, and they do not always agree with each other or with the deeds. A seller can hold a genuine-looking deed to land they do not own, the same land can be sold twice, and heirs are routinely left out of a sale. None of that is visible from the papers a seller hands you. It becomes visible only when those papers are checked against the record.
1. The chain of deeds
Ask for the seller’s deed and the deeds behind it, the baya deeds, as far back as they go. You are looking for an unbroken chain: every transfer registered, and every seller having actually received what they later sold. A gap in that chain is where the problem lives.
2. The khatian and the porcha
The khatian is the record of rights held at the land office, and a porcha is a certified copy of it. Check the current record and the earlier surveys, CS, SA, RS and, in city areas, BS. A plot can look clean in one and disputed in the next. Verify at the land office or against the online record rather than relying on a printout the seller supplies.
3. The mouza map and the plot itself
Match the dag number to the mouza map, and match the map to the land you were actually shown. Confirm the area and the boundaries. Plots get subdivided, recorded areas shrink between surveys, and the land on the record is not always the land on the ground.
4. Mutation and land development tax
Is the seller mutated as owner? If the record still shows someone else, ask why, and do not accept a vague answer. Current land development tax receipts in the seller’s name are useful corroboration of both ownership and possession.
5. Encumbrances and pending cases
Search for registered mortgages, agreements to sell and charges, and check whether the land is caught up in a title suit, a partition suit, a pre-emption claim or an injunction. A seller will very rarely volunteer any of this.
The red flags
- A seller in a hurry, or a price noticeably below the going rate for the area
- Inherited land being sold by one heir without the others joining
- A power of attorney holder selling rather than the owner
- A gap in the chain, or a transfer that was never registered
- Records that do not match the map, or an area that does not match what is being sold
What to do with what you find
Get a written report before you pay anything, including any advance under a bainanama. Where a problem is found it is almost always cheaper to fix it before purchase, by bringing in a missing heir, clearing a mortgage or correcting a record, than to litigate it afterwards.
Collect the papers
Deeds and baya deeds, khatian and porcha, mutation record, tax receipts and the mouza map.
Verify against the record
Check each document at the land office and the sub-registry, not merely on paper.
Search for claims
Look for registered mortgages and agreements, and for pending suits or injunctions.
Only then transact
Buy on the strength of the report, then register and mutate promptly.
Common questions
The seller has the original deed. Isn’t that enough?
No. It proves one transfer, not a clean chain, and it will not reveal a mortgage or a pending suit. The record has to be checked alongside it.
Can land records be checked online now?
For many areas yes, and the online record makes a doctored paper copy much harder to pass off. It should still be confirmed at the land office.
How long should a check take?
A single plot usually takes a few days to a couple of weeks. Inherited or repeatedly transferred land takes longer, and that extra time is usually exactly where the risk sits.
Have the land checked before you pay
A short search now saves years in court later.