RAJUK approval, and how to check a building has it
By Bdproperty Editorial Team · Updated:
RAJUK approves building plans inside the Dhaka metropolitan development area; other cities have their own authorities. An approval is specific — it covers a particular plan, a particular number of storeys and particular setbacks. A building with approval for six floors and eight standing is not partly approved; the extra floors are unauthorised, and that is the buyer's problem after the sale, not the developer's. Ask to see the approved plan itself and count the floors against it.
What does an approval actually cover?
A specific plan: the footprint, the setbacks from each boundary, the height and number of storeys, and the use the building is permitted for. Approval is granted against that drawing, not against the address in general.
Outside Dhaka the equivalent authority differs — CDA in Chattogram, KDA in Khulna, RDA in Rajshahi — and the same principle applies.
How do you check a building has it?
Ask the seller or developer for the approved plan and the approval letter, and compare the storeys and setbacks on the drawing with the building in front of you. Counting floors is the single most useful check a non-expert can make.
If the documents are not produced, treat that as the answer. An approval that exists is easy to show.
What if extra floors were built?
Unauthorised construction can be subject to enforcement, and it complicates utility connections, mortgage lending and any later sale. The risk transfers to you on purchase. Price it in or walk away; do not accept an assurance that it will be regularised.
Does approval prove the title is clean?
No, and this catches people out. Approval is about the building. Ownership of the land beneath it is a separate question answered by the chain of deeds, the khatian and the seller's mutation.
Common questions
Does RAJUK approval apply outside Dhaka?
No. RAJUK covers the Dhaka metropolitan development area. Chattogram, Khulna and Rajshahi have their own development authorities, and areas outside any of them fall to the local authority. The check is the same, the office is different.
The developer says extra floors will be regularised. Is that safe?
Treat it as unresolved rather than as a plan. Until an approval covering the floors as built actually exists, the construction is unauthorised and the consequences pass to you with the flat.
Can I see the approved plan myself?
Ask the seller first — it is a document they should hold. The approving authority is the fallback for verifying that what you were shown is genuine.
Sources: rajukdhaka.gov.bd · Building Construction Act 1952. This is general information, not legal advice. Confirm anything that affects a transaction with your Sub-Registrar or AC (Land) office.