What to do to avoid land registration fraud
September 30, 20244 Mins Read
Lifestyle Desk: Check whether the land is clean or not before buying. Because, the case of being cheated by buying land often happens. After buying the land, it was found that the seller was fake; Someone else has a share in that land or the land is in another mauza. So before buying land you need to know some essential things.

Land registration

To understand whether the land is clean or not, the correctness of land deeds, parchas, rents and names should be verified. For verification of the document, the sub-registry office should be inquired. One has to go to land office for verification of Parcha and rent receipt. And to verify the list, the office of the Assistant Commissioner (Land) should be contacted.

The information about the current owner of the land should be verified by visiting the said office. The current record or latest survey record will be in the name of the current owner of the land. If not, at least there will be names. Of course, the rent will be paid up to the current Bangla year. It is good to remember that the rent has to be paid according to Bengali year and the period of Bengali year for paying rent is from Baisakh to Chaitra month.

After confirmation of the above matters including land title deed to the current owner, rent update, the issue of transfer comes. Land is transferred in two ways – Heba and Saf Kabala registration. Irrespective of the method of transfer, it is important to keep the above points in mind to ensure ownership of the land.

Heba or Donation: This rule applies only to Muslims. For example, father-son, brother-sister, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, grandfather-grandson and husband-wife—any of them can bequeath land to each other. Transfer of land through Heba does not cost much. Depending on the situation, you may have to pay a maximum of 2 thousand rupees for the government fee. Apart from this, there is no cost.

Saf Kabla: There is no relational issue in transfer of land in Saf Kabla system. Rather, the normal way to transfer land is through clear title registration. The Ministry of Lands website has a sample format of land transfer deed prescribed by the government, which can be downloaded. But usually the Heba or Saf Kabala document is in the same format. It consists of 22 columns, of which column 11 deals with the land schedule. Donation, Khatian number should be written very carefully in this schedule.

When the document is ready for transfer, the document should be registered in the concerned sub-registry office.

How is the cost of cleaning?
* The registration fee for clear title deed is one percent of the value of the land written in the deed.
* One and a half percent as stamp duty. But it can be up to a maximum of 2 crores. Not more than that. Two percent for property under local government, city corporation area or cantonment board, three percent for all other areas.

Tax at source: There is a schedule of tax at source. May range from one to four percent as per schedule. The burden of this tax depends on where the land is located. If the transferor is a land dealer, the tax on the sale of their flat may be Rs 16,000 to Rs 6,500 per square meter of the flat depending on the area.

Only in the case of land, 5 percent tax is applicable on land in Dhaka, Gazipur, Narayanganj, Munshiganj, Manikganj, Narsingdi and Chittagong districts and 3 percent on land in all other areas. Tax at this source mainly applies to land traders and not to individuals.

Now let's take a look at how VAT is. VAT is also levied not on individuals, but on land traders, which can range from two to four and a half percent.

A note for the buyer: If the buyer wants to buy land belonging to City Corporation, Municipality or District, he must have E-TIN. However, E-TIN is not required to buy land in village area.

Full government fees are to be deposited through pay order or treasury challan. A copy of this invoice should be attached to the document. Then, if everything is in order, the registrar will complete the registration of the land in the presence of the land owner. Later he will take the signature and tip of the current owner of the land seller in the said document and volume book.

The taste of this blue banana will beat your imagination

This is how a heba or saf-kabla deed is completed and the ownership of a land is transferred.

Author: Advocate, Bangladesh Supreme Court