Notarising a villa contract: deed, legalisation or registration

Owners are often told a contract should be “notarised”, as if that were one thing. The Notary Act describes three different things a notary can do with a contract, and they are worth very different amounts to a villa owner.

Eight words for a notarised contract

The vocabulary around a notary's work is where the confusion starts.

Three things a notary can do with a contract

UU No. 30 Tahun 2004 on the notary's office, as amended by UU No. 2 Tahun 2014, gives the notary three ways to handle an agreement.

The deed

A notarial deed is an authentic deed made by or before a notary in the form and procedure the Act sets (Pasal 1 angka 7). The notary keeps the original — the minuta — and the parties receive copies. Immediately after it is read, it is signed by each person appearing, the witnesses and the notary (Pasal 44).

Legalisation

For a contract the parties write themselves, Pasal 15 ayat (2) huruf a lets the notary certify the signatures and fix the date by registering it in a special book. The contract remains a private document; what changes is that nobody can later deny signing it or dispute the date.

Waarmerking

Pasal 15 ayat (2) huruf b lets the notary simply book a private document in a special register. It proves the document existed on that date. It does not certify who signed it.

Which one a villa contract needs

No text read for this page makes any of the three compulsory for a management agreement or a villa lease. The choice is about proof.

A management agreement

The disputes that end management relationships are about what the contract says — the base of the fee, the costs, the notice — and about whether a later side letter was agreed. Legalisation settles who signed and when; a deed settles more, at more cost and with both parties before the notary.

A long lease

A lease of land or a villa for a long term is the document an owner's whole position may rest on, and the form it takes is worth choosing with that in mind. The land side of it is a buyer's subject, covered by our sister site.

The copies you receive

The notary keeps the original deed. What the parties receive is defined in the Act (UU No. 2 Tahun 2014, Pasal 1):

• Salinan — a word-for-word copy of the whole deed, ending “given as a COPY with the same wording”;
• Kutipan — a word-for-word extract of one or more parts of the deed;
• Grosse — a copy of a deed acknowledging a debt, headed with the formula that gives it executory force.

For a management agreement or lease, the salinan is the owner's document. Keep it with the receipts that show the stamp duty was paid.

The language of the deed

The Notary Act's rule on language was tightened in 2014 (Pasal 43 as amended):

• a deed must be made in Indonesian (ayat (1));
• a party who does not understand the language of the deed must have it translated or explained by the notary, or by an official translator (ayat (2) and (5));
• the parties may choose to have the deed made in a foreign language, and the notary must then translate it into Indonesian (ayat (3) and (4));
• if the interpretation differs, the Indonesian deed is the one used (ayat (6)).

For a foreign owner that last line is the one to read twice. The version that governs a notarial deed is the one in the language the owner may not read.

The deed and the meterai

Notarial deeds and their copies are subject to stamp duty (UU No. 10 Tahun 2020, Pasal 3 ayat (2) huruf b), due when the deed is signed. Stamp duty on villa documents.

What this page does not cover

• What the Civil Code says about the evidential weight of private and authentic documents. A government-hosted text of the relevant Book could not be retrieved for this round.
• Notary fees. Not in the Act as a schedule for these services.
• Land deeds (PPAT). A buying question.

Common questions