Rent Agreement Stamp Duty in Kerala

For a typical residential agreement up to 11 months, Kerala charges ₹500 flat — and registration is mandatory even at 11 months. The Kerala Finance Bill 2024 (effective April 2024) raised duty on 11-month agreements from ₹200 to ₹500 AND made registration of ALL rent/lease agreements mandatory — including 11-month ones. Kerala is the one state where the 11-month trick does not avoid registration.

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 for ALL rent/lease agreements since April 2024 — including 11-month agreements, unlike the 12-month threshold elsewhere in India.

Partial — digital e-stamping rolled out during 2025 and the PEARL registration system is online, but Sub-Registrar involvement is still required.

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.