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Heba deed rules and costs
Heba is how Bangladeshi families move property between generations without a sale — a father settling land on a daughter, parents dividing the homestead among children. The registration law treats it with unusual generosity, and the generosity has precise boundaries. This guide walks both.
The family class, exactly
Section 78A(b) of the Registration Act fixes a flat ৳100 registration fee for a heba deed between: spouses; parents and children; grandparents and grandchildren; and full brothers and full sisters. Section 78A(bb) extends the same treatment to gifts under Hindu, Christian and Buddhist personal law between the same relatives. Everyone else — nephews and nieces, cousins, half-siblings, in-laws, friends — is outside the class, and the deed registers on the ordinary scale.
The whole bill inside the class
Registration fee ৳100 · stamp duty ৳1,000 · affidavit ৳300 · e-fee ৳100 · N-fee ৳24 · NN-fee ৳36 per 300-word page · court fee ৳10. On a typical ten-page deed: ৳1,894 in total. No section 125 source tax (the NBR's July 2026 clarification confirms registration withholding does not apply to heba), and no local government tax. The heba calculator prices your page count and shows the sale-deed comparison on the same property.
The 2026 addition: gift with a lifetime usufruct
Since September 2026, the Registration (Amendment) Ordinance 2026 (section 78C) also allows a statutory gift in which the donor reserves the use of the property for life — the parents keep living in the house; the children's title is recorded now. It answers a real family anxiety: transferring early without becoming a guest in your own home. One caution: it is registered under a different clause from the classic heba, and whether the ৳100 fee applies to it should be confirmed with the sub-registry before execution. This site notes the form; it does not price it.
Outside the class
A gift to a relative outside the list is still a gift — but the fee concession is gone. The registration fee falls to the ordinary 1% of value, and the calculator shows that branch explicitly, flagging the stamp duty as unconfirmed rather than borrowing the sale deed's 1.5% and hoping. Local government tax and source tax positions on such deeds should be confirmed at the office; the site prints the flag, not a guess.
Three cautions that save deeds
Possession is part of the gift. A heba is completed by offer, acceptance and delivery of possession — a deed without delivery invites challenge. Heba-bil-ewaz is a sale in substance if real consideration moves; see the FAQ. A heba of a share in an undivided property (musha) has its own validity rules under Muslim law — where the property can be partitioned, a gift of an undivided share can fail; the partition route first is often the safer sequence.
Questions
Can a father gift land to a married daughter by heba?
Yes — parents and children are squarely inside the section 78A class, married or not, and the registration fee is the flat ৳100. The daughter’s own mutation and record update follow as usual (e-mutation ৳1,170).
What is heba-bil-ewaz, and why do lawyers warn about it?
A heba-bil-ewaz is a gift made in exchange for a stated consideration (ewaz). Because money or value moves, it can be treated in substance as a sale — with sale-deed charges and source tax — whatever the deed calls itself. If real consideration is passing, price the transaction honestly as a sale and use the land calculator; the saving from mislabelling is not worth the deed’s vulnerability.
Is a registered heba revocable?
Under Muslim law a completed gift — offer, acceptance and delivery of possession — is generally irrevocable once possession has been delivered, with narrow exceptions (for example, a gift to a spouse during the marriage, or where the donee has died). Registration records the gift; it does not create a general power to take it back. Take advice before acting on either side of that question.