Verifying a Bali property seller: what the land office will tell you

Most Bali property frauds come down to a seller who is not who, or what, they say. Indonesian land law has an unusually direct answer: the land register is public, and a buyer who does not look has been told in the regulation itself that the consequences are theirs.

The register is public

PP No. 24 Tahun 1997 on land registration makes the physical and legal data of registered land and strata units open to the public (Pasal 4(2)). Anyone with an interest has the right to know the data in the registration map, the land list, the survey plan and the land book (Pasal 34(1)); the procedure is set by the minister. Its elucidation is blunt: before a legal act over a plot, the parties need to know its data, and not using that right is their own responsibility.

The certificate the seller shows is strong evidence only as far as it matches the survey plan and the land book (Pasal 32(1)). The register is what it has to match.

Eight checks on a seller

When the PPAT must refuse

The land deed official must refuse to make the deed if the original certificate is not produced or does not match the land office's registers; for unregistered land, if the proof of the old right and the land office statement are missing; if a party or witness is not entitled; if a party acts on an absolute power of attorney that is in substance a transfer; if a required permit is missing; or if the land is in dispute (PP 24/1997, Pasal 39(1)). The refusal is given in writing with reasons.

The power of attorney

The absolute power of attorney — surat kuasa mutlak — is the instrument behind many arrangements in which one person holds land and another controls it. The regulation tells the PPAT to refuse a deed built on one. A seller who signs through someone else's absolute power of attorney is a seller to stop and ask about.

What cannot be fixed later, and when to pay

Freehold through a nominee

Any act meant to transfer freehold to a foreigner directly or indirectly is void, the land falls to the State and payments made cannot be reclaimed (UUPA Pasal 26(2)). If what is being sold is a foreigner's “ownership” of freehold held in a local name, the buyer is buying nothing the law recognizes. Since February 2026 Bali's Perda 4/2026 also bans acting as intermediary or facilitator of a nominee. The nominee rules. What a foreigner can hold.

A plot that is not what it says

A certificate whose physical data — area, boundaries — differ from the survey plan, or a plot whose zoning does not allow the villa on it, are problems that pass to the buyer with the deed. Zoning and the certificate types.

Timing the money

The seller's 2.5% final tax and the buyer's BPHTB are both paid before the deed, and the PPAT signs only on proof (PP 34/2016, Pasal 3). The checks above are the PPAT's to make before signing. A deposit paid before any of them is outside that protection; the safest order is the checks, then the money, then the deed. The full due-diligence list.

What this page does not cover

• The land office's procedure and fees for a data request. Set by the minister; not read.
• Criminal remedies for fraud. Not covered.
• Any particular seller or agent. We name none.

Common questions