The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh is considering significant changes to rent agreement rules, directly affecting both landlords and tenants.
The primary goal is to enhance property protection by encouraging the registration of rent agreements.
To make registration more accessible, the government is planning to reduce stamp duty charges. A proposal for these changes is expected to be presented in the cabinet soon.
Lower Stamp Duty to Promote Registration
Stamp and Registration Minister Ravindra Jaiswal has emphasized that registering rent agreements will help prevent disputes between landlords
and tenants. The new initiative aims to safeguard the interests of both parties.
Under the revised rules, stamp duty for a one-year rent agreement will range from ₹500 to ₹20,000.
Currently, high stamp duty charges discourage many people from registering their agreements. Instead, most agreements are made on ₹100 stamp paper, which has no legal validity.
In Uttar Pradesh, only 86,000 rent agreements were registered last year, even though lakhs of properties are rented out.
The proposed changes will encourage more registrations and strengthen legal protection.
Legal Validity and New Online Portal
As per the new rule, only the terms mentioned in a registered rent agreement will be legally valid and enforceable in court.
To simplify the process, a dedicated online portal will be introduced, featuring a fixed rent agreement format.
This format can be printed and saved, and once the required stamp is affixed, it will gain legal validity. The revised stamp duty charges will be as follows:
Rent up to ₹2 lakh – ₹500 stamp duty
Rent up to ₹5 lakh – ₹5,000 stamp duty
Rent of ₹1 crore or more – ₹20,000 stamp duty
