Agreement paper in Nepal: every सम्झौता पत्र, and what makes one valid

The Civil Code treats an agreement as a contract once one person accepts what another has offered (section 504). It binds — is enforceable by law — when four things are true (section 505):

• Both consent to be bound by it.
• Both can contract. A minor or a person of unsound mind cannot; a guardian contracts for them, and a company contracts through its authorised directors (section 506).
• Its subject is definite — what is being sold, lent, let or done, and for how much.
• It is lawful. An agreement to do something the law forbids binds no one.

A बैना is the agreement to sell, not the sale. The land changes hands only when the राजिनामा is registered at the land revenue office.

Every maker on this site asks for these in this order, and prints them the way a Nepali office expects to read them, in Nepali or English.

• The date and the place it was signed.
• The parties, each with full name, address and citizenship number. A deed of a transaction also names the father, mother and grandparents, and the husband or wife of a married person (section 477).
• What is agreed — the room, the plot by its kitta number, the vehicle by its engine and chassis numbers, the amount in figures and words.
• The terms: period, payment, what each side must do, what happens if one side backs out, how a dispute is settled.
• Signatures and thumbprints (सहीछाप) of both parties, and of the witnesses.

A loan between people — a तमसुक — may carry interest only if the deed says so (section 479), and the Civil Code caps it: at most ten percent of the principal a year (section 478). Compound interest may not be charged (section 480), and the interest collected may never exceed the principal (section 481).

When the loan is repaid, the lender returns the deed marked as paid, or gives a receipt if the deed cannot be found (section 482). The receipt maker writes that one too.

Sign every page, and give each party a copy with original signatures. A house rent agreement needs at least two witnesses for each side (section 386); for the others, two witnesses who are not family and can be found later are the best evidence you can add for nothing.

Some offices — an embassy, a bank — ask for a notarised copy. Ask the office that will read the agreement what it wants before you sign it.

For an agreement that has no maker of its own, this is the shape. Replace what is in [brackets].