The Bali property deal: from booking to the certificate in your hand

The short answer

• Booking: a deposit locks the terms and takes the object off the market. Whether it is refundable is whatever the booking agreement says, not a rule of law.
• Checking the object: land, permits, company and money are the four checks we cover in a dedicated article; no source we rely on sets a standard duration in days for that check.
• If the object is still under construction, the right to market it under a preliminary agreement (PPJB) exists only once four statutory conditions are met: land status, the agreement terms, the building permit and infrastructure readiness, and at least 20 percent of construction complete.
• The actual transfer deed, not the PPJB, is made by a notary who is usually also the land deed official (PPAT); the law requires that person to stay neutral between the two sides.
• After signing, the deed goes to the land office within 7 working days; whether you end up holding a certificate or only a deed depends on the title type.
• The first year after the deal brings the annual PBB land tax and switching the electricity and water accounts into your name.

Booking: what a deposit actually is

A booking deposit on a Bali object is not its own institution under Indonesian law, it is a term of your booking agreement. Article 1464 of the Civil Code, which sometimes gets cited for this, says only that once a purchase is made with earnest money (panjar), neither side can cancel the deal by forfeiting or returning that money; the article does not name what kind of sale it covers, and the same part of the Code goes on to regulate land sales directly, so no movable-goods limit can be read into it. Among the sources we checked, no rule defines the legal nature of a deposit on a real estate booking specifically. Which means one thing: whether the deposit is refundable, and what happens if the seller changes their mind or a check fails, is decided entirely by the wording of your booking agreement. Get it in writing before any money moves, and read the clause on either side walking away, not just your own.

Checking the object: what gets checked, not how long it takes

How long the legal check takes before a deal is a question almost every buyer asks, and the honest answer is that no law and no government body sets a standard duration, so we do not put a figure in days or weeks on it as a market or legal norm. What actually gets checked is covered in detail in "How to check a Bali developer before money moves": the land certificate and its zoning, the PBG and SLF permits, the seller company's registration in the AHU registry and its NIB number, the company's litigation history, and how the money flows. If a seller or agent gives you a specific check duration as a guarantee, ask what exactly gets verified in that time; often the promise is less about the work involved than about wanting a faster signature.

PPJB and the deed: two papers, two different legal weights

For housing units still under construction, a standalone house, a row house or an apartment, the law allows selling them under a preliminary sale and purchase agreement (PPJB) only once four conditions are met at the same time: certainty of land status, certainty of the agreement's own terms, possession of the main building permit, and readiness of infrastructure and utilities, plus at least 20 percent of construction actually completed (Law 1 of 2011 on Housing and Settlement Areas, Article 42, paragraphs 1 to 2). The 2011 statute still literally names that permit "izin mendirikan bangunan induk," the old IMB term, not PBG, because that specific law was never rewritten for the 2021 terminology; we use PBG elsewhere on this site because it is the term that governs new permits, and here it is the same requirement under its older statutory name.

The same law bars a corporate developer from handing over the unit or drawing more than 80 percent of the buyer's payment before those four conditions are met; breaching it is a criminal offense carrying up to 1 year of detention or a fine of up to Rp 1,000,000,000 (Articles 45, 138 and 155 of Law 1 of 2011). One caveat matters here: this buyer protection regime applies to a house or apartment sale under that specific housing law. Some Bali off plan deals are structured differently, as a land lease (leasehold) paired with a separate construction contract, and that structure can sit legally outside this regime (more detail in our developer check article). Do not treat the 80 percent cap as an automatic protection on every off plan Bali object until you have seen how the specific deal is papered.

What actually turns paper into a right is not the PPJB. A transfer of a land right, or of ownership of a unit in a condominium, by sale can only be registered at the land office if it is proven by a deed made by an authorized land deed official (PPAT), except for a transfer by auction (Government Regulation 24 of 1997 on Land Registration, Article 37, paragraph 1). The PPJB stays a preliminary statement of intent; only the deed itself carries the legal weight of a title transfer. Leasehold does not touch any of this: a lease is not a transfer of a land right, so it never passes through this registration system at all (more detail in our article on what happens when a Bali leasehold ends).

Notary and PPAT: one person, two offices, one duty: neutrality

The Notary Law directly requires a notary to act trustworthy, honest, careful, independent and impartial, and to safeguard the interests of everyone party to the legal act (Law 30 of 2004 as amended by Law 2 of 2014, Article 16, paragraph 1, letter a). The land deed official, PPAT, is appointed and dismissed by the Minister of Agrarian Affairs (Government Regulation 24 of 1997, Article 7, paragraph 1), formally a separate office. But the law ties the two roles to one place: if a notary is also appointed PPAT, the location of their PPAT office must follow the location of their notarial office (Law 30 of 2004 as amended by Law 2 of 2014, Article 19, paragraph 2). That is why "notary" and "PPAT" blur into one word in everyday conversation: in Bali it is almost always one office and one person, but two distinct roles under two different rules.

Neutrality does not mean the notary or PPAT works for you. They do not verify a developer's solvency, do not assess build quality, do not negotiate for either side, and do not guarantee facts beyond what the certificate shows and what the parties present, a position we hold in our developer check article and repeat here without softening it. Their job is a correctly made deed, a checked certificate, and the deal's taxes paid. Deep due diligence on the object is a separate job for your lawyer and the agency running the deal.

Payments in stages: what the law caps, what the contract decides

Where a deal genuinely runs as a regulated housing sale under a PPJB, the law sets a hard ceiling: no more than 80 percent before the four conditions in Article 42 are met, with criminal liability for breaching it (Articles 45, 138 and 155 of Law 1 of 2011). Where your specific deal is structured differently, the law does not guarantee that ceiling, and the practical protection stops being a statute and becomes the wording of the contract itself: Indonesia mandates no escrow for deals like this, and stage payments in Bali normally go straight into the developer's operating account (we cover this in our developer check article). Payments tied to construction milestones, foundation, structure, roof, handover, rather than calendar dates, are the realistic protection precisely because the law does not carry that weight for every deal structure.

Signing day: in person, by power of attorney, or with an interpreter

1. 01

   In person

   A notary or PPAT reads the deed aloud in the presence of the parties, and at least two witnesses must be present at the reading: at least 18 years old or already married, legally competent, and understanding the language the deed is written in (Law 30 of 2004 as amended by Law 2 of 2014, Article 40). A parallel and separate rule governs a title transfer deed made by a PPAT: it must be made in the presence of the parties and at least two witnesses meeting the same requirements (Government Regulation 24 of 1997, Article 38, paragraph 1).

2. 02

   By power of attorney

   An ordinary revocable power of attorney authorizing someone to sign on your behalf is routine and lawful; it is used whenever the buyer cannot be in Bali in person on signing day. The restriction in the law targets a different case entirely: a PPAT must refuse to make a deed when a party is acting under an irrevocable power of attorney, a "surat kuasa mutlak," that in substance amounts to a transfer of rights rather than a plain authorization to sign (Government Regulation 24 of 1997, Article 39, paragraph 1, letter d). Do not confuse the two documents: an ordinary signing power of attorney is normal practice, an irrevocable one that stands in for the deal itself is what the official is bound to reject. If the power of attorney is executed outside Indonesia, ask the notary in advance whether an apostille or consular legalization applies to that specific document: Indonesia ratified the Hague Apostille Convention by Presidential Regulation 2 of 2021, dated 4 January 2021, and the exact procedure for your document and country is something the notary confirms, not a rule to assume.

3. 03

   With an interpreter

   The deed is made in Indonesian; if a party does not understand the language the deed is written in, the notary must translate or explain its content in a language that party understands, and if there is ever a difference of interpretation, the Indonesian text is what is used (Law 30 of 2004 as amended by Law 2 of 2014, Article 43, paragraphs 2 and 6). Separately, the parties may request a version of the deed in another language, with an Indonesian version still mandatory in that case; if the notary cannot personally translate it, an official sworn translator does so and signs the deed alongside the parties and witnesses (Article 43, paragraphs 3 to 5).

A tax payment quietly acts as a built-in checkpoint before signing: the seller's final income tax on a title transfer must be paid before the deed is signed, and in practice a PPAT will not proceed without proof of that payment (we cover the rates and the logic in our taxes and costs article). That is not a rule written specifically for this moment, it is a consequence of the PPAT being bound to refuse a deed when a statutory condition is not met.

Registration: what document you actually end up holding

Within 7 working days of signing, the PPAT must submit the deed and its supporting documents to the local Land Office (Kantor Pertanahan) for registration (Government Regulation 24 of 1997, Article 40, paragraph 1). The PPAT's legal duty stops there: chasing the rest of the registration through to a finished document in your hand is your own follow-up, not the official's job.

Registration is not a formality that cannot be stopped: the Land Office must refuse to register a transfer or an encumbrance if the certificate no longer matches its records, the transaction is not proven by a PPAT deed or an auction excerpt, required documents are incomplete, the land is the object of a court dispute, or the underlying act has been annulled by a final court decision (Government Regulation 24 of 1997, Article 45, paragraph 1). That is exactly why checking the certificate against the land book before signing is not a formality, it is what actually decides whether the deal reaches the finish line.

• Freehold, HGB or Hak Pakai: registration ends with a certificate issued by the local land office in your own name or your PT PMA's. We are not confirming in this article whether a Bali buyer today receives an electronic certificate rather than a paper one; ask the specific land office at the time of your deal.
• Leasehold: no registration happens at all. A leasehold rests on the Agrarian Law's right of lease and the Civil Code, is drafted by a notary rather than a PPAT, is never registered at the land office and produces no certificate; what you hold is the notarial lease deed itself, which is exactly why its wording carries the full weight of your protection (more detail in our article on what happens when a Bali leasehold ends).

Handover and the inspection list

A walkthrough before the keys change hands and a list of items to fix, a "snag list," is market practice and a term of your sale or construction contract, not a separate procedure defined by Indonesian law. Who actually carries responsibility for the object between signing the deed and physically receiving the keys, insurance, damage liability, security on site, is not directly addressed by any source we checked; the answer comes from your contract's wording, not from a statute. If your deed or agreement has no explicit clause on who carries that risk before physical handover, that is a gap worth closing before you sign, not something to find out after the fact.

The first year: PBB tax and utility transfers

The annual land and building tax, PBB, is billed to the registered rights holder; on a leasehold that is by default the landowner, though Bali lease deeds routinely shift that cost onto the tenant, and we cover the rates in detail in our taxes and costs article. Separately from tax, the first year after a deal usually involves an administrative step: switching the electricity and water accounts into your own name, or your company's, as the new holder of the object. That is an operational task rather than a matter of statute, and the process differs by utility provider.

What comes up in conversation but does not hold up: a claim that "the deposit is protected by earnest money law" (the Civil Code article on earnest money only bars cancelling a sale by forfeiting or returning the deposit; it names no real-estate-specific protection); a claim that "the snag list is a mandatory legal document" (it is a contract term, not a term defined by statute); a claim about how many days the developer check takes (no source we rely on sets that figure); a claim that "the certificate is now always electronic" (not confirmed for Bali by any source we checked as of the date above). We would rather leave each of these out than state them vaguely.