How to Register & Transfer Land in Nepal — Rajistration & Namsari (Dakhil Kharij)

Transferring land in Nepal is a two-part legal act that people often confuse. The first part is rajistration (registration) — the formal execution and recording of the transfer deed (raजinama / likhat) at the District Land Revenue Office, locally called the Malpot office (Malpot Karyalaya). The second part is namsari / dakhil kharij — the mutation, in which the office actually updates its ownership ledger and issues a fresh ownership certificate (lalpurja) in the new owner's name. Registration creates the legal document; mutation changes the record of who owns the parcel.

Nepal runs a deed-based system rather than a title-guarantee (Torrens) system. The government acts as a witness to the transaction, not a guarantor of clean title, so buyers must verify the parcel's status themselves before paying. Under the Muluki Civil (Sanhita) Act, 2074 (National Civil Code), the transfer of immovable property is among the transactions that are valid only once registered, and the parties must appear in person at the Land Revenue Office to register the deed and pay the applicable fees.

The word 'namsari' is the everyday term for mutation. Technically, namsari most often refers to succession/inheritance transfers (when an owner dies), while dakhil kharij (often written 'da.kha.') refers to transfers effected by a court decision, public auction, or order of a government agency. A normal sale, gift or partition is registered as a deed and then mutated into the buyer's name.

Land transfer in Nepal rests on a small stack of laws. The Muluki Civil (Sanhita) Act, 2074 (2017) consolidates the rules on private property and the registration of immovable-property transactions. The Land Revenue Act, 2034 (1977) establishes a Land Revenue Office (Malpot) in each district and tasks it with registering land, maintaining the registration records, collecting land revenue and issuing ownership certificates. The Lands Act, 2021 (1964) and the survey laws govern measurement, cadastral records and land-ceiling rules.

Day-to-day, every transfer is handled by the District Land Revenue Office (Malpot Karyalaya) for the area where the land lies; the parcel map and field-book records sit with the related Survey Office (Napi). The Department of Land Management and Archive, under the Ministry of Land Management, oversees these offices and is progressively digitising records through the Digital Land Information System (DLIS).

The Malpot office keeps the authoritative ownership ledger known as the Moth Shresta. When a deed is registered and approved, the office's Moth section is the unit that updates the Moth record and prints (or, where DLIS is not yet live, hand-writes) the new lalpurja; the completed file is then archived in the Tameli (records) section.

A transfer usually begins with a sale agreement (bainapatra) between buyer and seller, setting the price and timeline. Before any money changes hands, the buyer should run due diligence at the Malpot and Survey offices: confirm the seller is the registered owner on the current lalpurja, check the parcel (kitta) number and area against the cadastral map, and obtain an encumbrance check to make sure the land is not mortgaged, frozen by a court (rokka), or subject to a dispute.

It is also the moment to identify the land's tenure category. Ordinary private (raikar) land transfers freely, but Guthi land — held under religious or charitable trusts — is often restricted: most Raj Guthi land cannot be sold at all, and where a transfer is permitted it usually needs a recommendation/consent from the Guthi Sansthan (Guthi Corporation). Verifying the Guthi status early avoids registering a deed that the office will reject.

The Malpot office will not register a deed without a complete file. The exact list varies a little by district and by the type of transfer (sale, gift, partition, inheritance), but the core documents are consistent. Many of these — especially the tax-clearance voucher and the ward recommendation — must be obtained from the local level (palika/ward) before you reach the Malpot counter.

With the file ready, both parties (or their attorneys under a registered power of attorney) appear at the Land Revenue Office for the area where the land lies. Staff verify the documents and cross-check the seller's signature and thumb impression against the Moth Shresta. The office then carries out a government valuation of the parcel (Malpot mulyankan), which sets the basis for the registration fee — this assessed value is typically lower than the open-market price.

The transfer deed (rajinama / likhat) is drafted, read out and signed by both parties before the registration officer and witnesses. The buyer pays the registration fee, which is charged as a percentage of the assessed value and varies by local level (it is generally higher in metropolitan and sub-metropolitan cities and lower in rural municipalities, with a statutory concession for transfers registered in a woman's name). Where the law applies, the seller also clears capital gains tax on the profit, collected through the Land Revenue Office at the time of registration.

Once fees and any taxes are paid and the deed is approved by the authorised officer, the transfer is officially registered. If the sale involves only part of a parcel, the Survey Office first carries out a parcel split (napi/kitta kaat) so the registered portion has its own kitta number and map.

Registration alone does not yet change who the records say owns the land — that happens at the mutation (namsari / dakhil kharij) stage. After the deed is registered, the file moves internally for the ownership record to be updated. The Moth section amends the Moth Shresta to remove the seller and enter the buyer, then issues a new lalpurja in the buyer's name. With DLIS-enabled offices this is a printed certificate; in offices not yet on the system it may still be hand-written. The closed file is archived in the Tameli section.

For a straightforward sale, the registration and the mutation often happen in close succession, and a clean case can complete within the same visit or a few days; allowing for due diligence, tax clearance and ward recommendations, the end-to-end process commonly takes a few weeks. For an inheritance, namsari is filed separately after the owner's death with documents such as the death certificate, a relationship certificate from the local level, the deceased's lalpurja and tax clearance; for transfers via a court judgment or auction, the dakhil kharij is processed on the strength of the court decision or auction order rather than a sale deed.

After mutation, finish the loop at the local level: have the new owner's name recorded for land-tax purposes so future tiro rasid (tax receipts) are issued in your name. Keep the registered deed and the new lalpurja safely — they are your primary proof of ownership in Nepal's deed-based system. This article is general information, not legal advice; confirm current documents, fees and tax rates with your District Land Revenue Office.