Rent Agreement Stamp Duty in Maharashtra

For a typical residential agreement up to 11 months, Maharashtra charges 0.25% of total rent + deposit interest. Leave-and-licence agreements (up to 60 months) pay 0.25% of the consideration: total rent for the term + any non-refundable deposit + notional 10%/year interest on the refundable deposit. A ₹20,000/month 11-month agreement with a ₹1 lakh deposit works out to roughly ₹575.

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.

Yes — ALL leave-and-licence agreements must be registered regardless of duration under Section 55 of the Maharashtra Rent Control Act 1999. The burden is on the landlord, with fines up to ₹5,000 for non-registration. Maharashtra is the exception to the 11-month convention.

Fully online statewide — IGR Maharashtra's e-registration portal with Aadhaar eKYC; no sub-registrar visit needed. The only state with end-to-end online rent-agreement registration.

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.