A buyer who has registered a deed sometimes walks out of the sub-registry office feeling finished. The deed is in hand, the keys are in hand, and the flat feels owned. In the record books, though, the story is half told. Mutation, known as namjari, is the step that enters the new owner's name in the land records. Without it, paying land development tax in your own name, getting a clean record for a future sale, or proving your holding to a bank becomes difficult. The deed proves the transaction. Mutation updates the record that the state keeps.
Which office handles mutation depends on what was bought. For ordinary private land and flats on private land, the Assistant Commissioner (Land), the AC Land office, handles mutation. A published guide to the process puts the government mutation fee for private land at Tk 1,170. For leasehold property in RAJUK estates, the picture changed recently. The Ministry of Housing and Public Works announced in November 2025, as reported by The Business Standard, that no prior approval from RAJUK or another authority is needed to transfer a residential plot or flat developed under the ministry or its affiliated bodies. Transfer now happens through registration at the sub-registry office on payment of a fixed fee: 2 percent of the deed value for flats and 3 percent for plots, collected as non-tax revenue. After transfer, a copy of the deed and the mutation-related documents must be submitted to the leasing authority within 90 days, with a daily fine of Tk 50, up to Tk 10,000, for missing that deadline. Permission is still needed for plot division, amalgamation or a change of land use against the master plan, and the relaxation does not cover disputed properties, abandoned properties or special allocations between January 2009 and July 2024. Because older guides still describe the previous approval route, a buyer should confirm the current position at the concerned office before paying anything.
Papers to carry, and why each one is asked for
The file a buyer builds at this stage is mostly papers already collected during purchase, plus a few new ones. Expect to need the registered deed or a certified copy, the seller's chain of title papers, the latest mutation khatian if one exists, up-to-date land development tax (khajna) receipts, the DCR for the mutation, National ID cards and passport-size photographs, and, for leasehold flats, the allotment letter, lease deed and prior mutation papers. Where the transfer came through inheritance or gift, the warish certificate, succession papers or gift deed take the place of a sale deed in the chain. Offices ask for originals to be shown alongside photocopies, so carry both.
One habit saves weeks: check that names match across every paper before filing. A deed that spells a name one way, an NID that spells it another, and a khajna receipt that carries a third spelling will stall a file while the office asks for clarification. The same applies to plot and dag numbers, mouza names and flat identification. A mismatch that looks small on a desk can be the reason a file sits for a month.
The sequence, in plain order
For an AC Land mutation, the buyer applies to the AC Land office with the deed and supporting papers. The office opens a mutation case, issues a notice for hearing, and checks the papers against the record, including whether khajna is up to date and whether the chain of title holds together. After hearing and verification, the mutation is approved, a new khatian is prepared in the buyer's name, and the DCR is issued. For a RAJUK leasehold flat under the November 2025 change, the transfer itself is completed at registration on payment of the fixed fee, and the post-transfer filing with the leasing authority within 90 days is the step that must not be missed. In both tracks, keep every receipt and every stamped copy. A buyer who loses the DCR or the filing receipt will spend more time reconstructing the file than the original application took.
Fees beyond the headline figure deserve a direct question at the office. Stamp duty, deed and documentation costs, and lawyer's fees where a lawyer is engaged, sit outside the mutation fee itself. RAJUK's older citizen charter figures for leasehold mutation, for example Tk 7,000 for a residential flat in the Gulshan, Banani, Baridhara and Uttara estate offices, still appear in guides written before the November 2025 change. Do not pay from an old guide. Ask the office for the current schedule, get it in writing where possible, and pay through the bank channel the office specifies.
What usually causes delay
Delay rarely comes from one dramatic problem. It comes from a file that is almost complete. Unpaid khajna is the most common hold-up: the office will not move a mutation forward while tax on the holding is outstanding. A missing link in the chain of deeds is next, especially where a flat changed hands informally years ago and a link was never registered. Boundary or area disputes, a co-owner who has not signed, and a deed that describes the flat differently from the approved plan all push a file into a longer queue.
Buyers can reduce the risk before registration, not after. Check khajna status while the seller is still at the table, and make clearing arrears part of the deal. Read the deed schedule against the actual flat: floor, flat number, area and the land share. If the flat sits in a RAJUK estate, confirm whether the property falls within the schedule covered by the November 2025 relaxation, since disputed or specially allocated properties follow the older approval route. Where anything is unclear, a lawyer's check before registration costs far less than a dispute after it.
Mutation is unglamorous work, and that is exactly why it gets postponed. Families move in, paint the walls, and plan the housewarming while the file waits in a drawer. Months later, when a loan application or a resale asks for the record in the buyer's name, the delay becomes urgent. File within weeks of registration, keep the receipts together, and treat the mutation khatian as part of the flat itself: not an extra, but the paper that lets the next chapter of ownership happen cleanly.
