Rent Agreement Stamp Duty in Delhi

For a typical residential agreement up to 11 months, Delhi charges 2% of average annual rent. Stamp duty is 2% of average annual rent for agreements up to 5 years — about ₹4,320 on ₹18,000/month. In widespread practice, unregistered 11-month agreements are executed on ₹50-100 e-stamp paper; the 2% rate applies when stamping formally.

Under Section 17 of the Registration Act, a lease of immovable property for 12 months or longer MUST be registered with the sub-registrar — which costs time, registration fees, and higher stamp duty. An 11-month agreement stays below that threshold, so it can be executed on stamp paper without mandatory registration. That's the whole reason 11 months became India's default tenancy term.

Mandatory only for tenancies of 12 months or more (Section 17, Registration Act). 11-month agreements are exempt and commonly just notarised.

E-stamp paper via SHCIL (physical stamp paper discontinued), purchasable online. Registration itself still needs a sub-registrar appointment; several platforms deliver e-stamped agreements with Aadhaar eSign.

An unstamped or under-stamped agreement is not admissible as evidence in court until the deficit duty plus a penalty (up to 10× the deficit in most states) is paid. Police verification, HRA claims, address proof, and eviction proceedings can all stumble on an unstamped agreement — the duty is small, so pay it upfront.

The law doesn't fix this; it's whatever the agreement says. In practice the tenant usually bears the stamp duty and registration costs in most Indian cities, though splitting 50:50 is common in some markets. Put the split in writing in the agreement itself.