Due Diligence for Bali Property: A Checklist Before You Buy

Due diligence for Bali property, step by step: how to check a land certificate at BPN, the seller, mortgages, zoning, permits and access before you pay.

Due diligence on Bali property means checking, before you pay, that the seller may sell, that nothing is registered against the land and that you can use it as planned. The core is an official certificate check at the land office (BPN), requested by a PPAT (land deed official), plus checks of the seller, zoning, permits, access and taxes. Below is the checklist as of October 2026: what to check, who does it and which documents you need.

Why due diligence matters in Bali

Most problems with Bali property sit in the paperwork, not the building: a seller who cannot sell alone, a bank mortgage, a family dispute, farmland that cannot be built on, or a villa built without approval or over its boundary. Checks find them before you pay; afterward they are hard to fix, and the rules are enforced: in late 2025 a Canggu villa that had built onto a riverbank and into the river channel was sealed, and the owner began demolishing about 250 m² of it after the land office measured the encroachment.

Who does what

• Notary and PPAT: the PPAT requests the certificate check and makes the deed of sale (AJB, Akta Jual Beli); a notary makes the binding sale agreement (PPJB) and lease deeds. Choose your own, independent of the seller, and get every result in writing.
• Your own lawyer (optional): useful for a company seller, heirs, a lease taken over from a tenant or any sign of a dispute.
• Land office and engineer: the land office measures plots; an architect or engineer can check the building against its approved plans.
• The agent: we collect the seller’s documents, review the certificate and permits with the owner before a listing goes online, and coordinate appointments. Our review is not the official land office check, which only a PPAT can request. An agent is not your legal adviser, so we encourage every buyer to have their own notary check the certificate again.

There is no fixed timetable: it depends on the seller’s documents and on the land office, where electronic services were still slow in places in mid-2026. Ask your notary for a realistic schedule.

Due diligence on Bali property: the checklist

1. The certificate and the land office (BPN) check

Ask early for a copy of the certificate (sertipikat). It shows the right being sold, such as Hak Milik (freehold, “SHM”), HGB (right to build) or Hak Pakai (right of use), the holder, the plot size and the boundaries; check them against the seller’s ID and the plot you viewed.

• Official check: only a PPAT can request a certificate check (pengecekan sertipikat). The land office confirms that the certificate matches its records, the land book (buku tanah) and survey document (surat ukur), where mortgages, blocks and seizures are also recorded. The official fee is IDR 50,000 per certificate (Government Regulation, PP 128/2015). Ask for a check before any deposit, not only before the deed.
• SKPT: an official statement of the plot’s registered status, holder and other notes (Surat Keterangan Pendaftaran Tanah), which an interested party with a legal link to the plot can request.
• Sentuh Tanahku: the land ministry’s app shows registered users an application’s status and a plot’s location; detailed data is usually limited to the owner or their attorney. It is a first look only.

No certificate? Old land tax notes such as a girik, letter C or pipil are only an indication of an old customary right, not proof of ownership; PP 18/2021 (art. 96) gave holders five years from February 2021 to register them. Let the owner obtain a certificate before you buy or lease.

2. The seller’s identity and authority

• Identity: the ID card (KTP) or passport and the family card (Kartu Keluarga), matched with the certificate.
• Spouse: unless the couple has a marriage agreement separating their property, property acquired during a marriage is joint, and a spouse can deal with it only with the consent of both (Marriage Law, UU 1/1974, art. 36); property owned before the marriage, inherited or received as a gift stays personal (art. 35). This covers leases too: a lease of joint property signed by one spouse alone can be annulled. The notary establishes which applies.
• Mixed marriage: if an Indonesian seller is married to a foreigner, ask about a notarial separation-of-property agreement. Without one, land bought during the marriage is joint property with the foreign spouse, which freehold does not allow (PP 18/2021 art. 70).
• Heirs: if the registered owner has died, ask the notary which documents prove who the heirs are, whether the land must first be registered in their names, and who must sign.
• Company or attorney: for a company, ask for its deed of establishment, latest amendments and who may sign. Have the notary check any power of attorney, and ideally speak with the owner yourself.

3. Mortgages, blocks and disputes

• Mortgage (Hak Tanggungan): a bank’s security right registered on the land for a loan. A purchase is still possible, but ask the PPAT to set out in writing how the bank is paid off and the mortgage lifted (roya), and never pay the seller directly while it is registered.
• Block (blokir): a temporary freeze recorded by the land office, for example during a dispute, at the request of someone with a legal link to the land or of law enforcement. A block requested by a person or company lasts 30 days unless a court extends it (Permen ATR/BPN 13/2017). Find out who placed it and why.
• Seizure (sita): recorded when a court or investigator seizes the land; a seized right cannot be transferred or mortgaged (art. 25 of the same regulation).
• Court cases: district courts publish their cases online in SIPP (Sistem Informasi Penelusuran Perkara), the Supreme Court’s case tracker, searchable by a party’s name. Search the courts for the land’s area and the seller’s home; cases before about 2014 may be missing.
• On the ground: ask the neighbors and the village office whether anyone else claims, lives on or farms the land.
• Tenants: a sale does not end an earlier lease unless the lease says so (Civil Code art. 1576), so ask about existing leases and read them.

4. Zoning and permitted use

The certificate shows the right and the boundaries, not what you may build there. Have the regency confirm the zone, and whether your plan is allowed, in writing. For a business use such as rental accommodation, the formal check is a KKPR (the official finding that the use fits the spatial plan), applied for in the OSS licensing system. Our Bali zoning guide explains the steps, including setbacks and temple zones.

• Farmland: Governor’s Instruction 5/2025 (December 2025) told Bali’s regencies not to convert, or approve the conversion of, rice fields and protected farmland (LP2B) until a provincial regulation was in place. That regulation, Perda Bali 4/2026, has applied since about late February 2026 and strictly controls the conversion of productive land. Do not buy farmland hoping to rezone it.

5. Buildings: PBG and SLF

Ask for the PBG (Persetujuan Bangunan Gedung, building approval), which replaced the old IMB permit, and the SLF (Sertifikat Laik Fungsi, certificate of fitness for use), and compare them with what is built, extensions and pool included. Building without a PBG, or differently from it, risks warnings, a stop to construction or use, revocation of the approval and a demolition order (Buildings Law, UU 28/2002 as amended). Both documents are also basic requirements for a business license.

If there is only an older IMB, ask the notary or the regency office whether it covers the building as it stands; later extensions usually need a PBG. For an older or owner-built villa, have the structure inspected.

6. Access road and boundaries

Walk the plot with the seller and compare the fences and markers with the certificate. If they do not match, ask your notary to have the land office measure the plot before you sign. Then ask:

• Does the plot reach a public road? If access crosses a neighbor’s land, is it agreed in writing, and does it bind future owners?
• If you buy part of a larger plot, when will it get its own certificate (pecah sertipikat), and in whose name?

7. Taxes and bills

• Land and building tax (PBB): ask for the latest annual notice (SPPT) and proof of payment for recent years. Have the notary confirm there are no arrears, and let the contract say who pays any that appear.
• Transfer taxes: in practice the PPAT asks for proof of the buyer’s BPHTB (acquisition duty) and the seller’s 2.5% income tax before the deed. See our guide to taxes and buying costs.
• Utilities: check the electricity meter (prepaid or postpaid), its capacity in VA and recent bills, and ask how water and internet are supplied and in whose name.

8. Extra checks for a leasehold or a rental villa

Leasehold. You are buying a contract, so check the contract and the land behind it:

• the landowner’s certificate, identity, spouse and heirs, as for a sale;
• for a lease taken over from a tenant, the original lease and the landowner’s written consent: without it a tenant may not sublease or assign (Civil Code art. 1559), and if the main lease is cancelled for that reason, the landowner is not bound by the sublease;
• the exact end date and the extension clause, where a fixed price or formula and a notice deadline are far stronger than “to be agreed”;
• whether the lease is recorded at the land office (PP 18/2021 art. 90).

More in our guide to leasehold vs freehold in Bali.

A villa with rental history. Ask which licenses it holds (a business ID number, NIB, from OSS, plus the PBG and SLF), in whose name, and whether you can use them or need your own. Since May 2026 Bali has closed OSS to new foreign-investment (PMA) applications in 18 business lines, including renting out property, so check your plans with a licensing consultant. Ask too whether regional tax on guest stays was paid: in 2024 Badung found villas run as rentals but declared as private homes. See our guide to renting out a villa in Bali.

Red flags

• No copy of the certificate, or no access for your notary to check it.
• A seller not named on the certificate, with no checked power of attorney or proof of inheritance.
• A married seller whose spouse “does not need to sign”, with no marriage agreement or proof that the land is personal property.
• A large deposit before the checks, in cash, or to someone not on the certificate.
• Freehold held in an Indonesian’s name for a foreigner, whether for you or for the seller: nominee arrangements are void and banned by Perda Bali 4/2026 (see our guide for foreign buyers).
• A block, a seizure, a court case, or a mortgage without a payoff plan.
• Farmland with a promise that the zone “can be changed”, or an old tax note instead of a certificate.
• No PBG, a building larger than approved, fences off the certificate lines, or access by a neighbor’s goodwill.

The checklist at a glance

When you are ready, browse villas for sale and land for sale, or describe what you are looking for.