Compliance · Karnataka

Karnataka's New Rent Rules for 2026: What Every Bengaluru Landlord Needs to Know

18 August 2026 · 5 min read

If you own a rental property in Bengaluru, the rules changed under you this year — and not in small ways. The Karnataka Rent (Amendment) Act came into force on January 8, 2026, and alongside it, the state's e-stamping and digital registration system has moved almost entirely online. Here's what actually changed, and what you need to do about it.

The security deposit cap is real, and it's low

Under the new Act, residential security deposits are capped at two months' rent. Commercial deposits are capped at six months. If you've been collecting the traditional 6–10 months' deposit that used to be standard in Bengaluru, that arrangement is no longer compliant for new agreements. Existing leases will need to be renegotiated as they come up for renewal.

There's a second change worth knowing: landlords can no longer deduct "normal wear and tear" from a deposit — faded paint, ordinary carpet wear, that kind of thing. Deductions are now limited to genuine tenant-caused damage.

Physical stamp paper is gone

Since July 2025, Karnataka stopped accepting physical stamp paper for rental agreements entirely. Every agreement now needs to be executed on an e-stamp certificate, bought either through the Kaveri Online Services portal (kaveri.karnataka.gov.in) or an authorised SHCIL vendor. Turning up with a document-writer's physical stamp paper the way it's always been done will no longer hold up.

Registration depends on your lease length — this trips people up constantly

This is the part that causes the most confusion, so here's the actual split:

• 11-month agreements (the standard "leave and license" format most Bengaluru rentals use): e-stamping is mandatory, but full registration at the Sub-Registrar's office is not strictly required by law. Stamp duty is a flat, small amount for this format.
• 12 months or longer: registration becomes mandatory, stamp duty is calculated as a percentage of total rent across the lease term, and both parties need to appear for biometric verification.

The catch with 11-month agreements: even though registration isn't legally mandatory, an unregistered agreement can't be used as primary evidence if a dispute ever reaches a Rent Authority or court — it's only treated as secondary evidence. A growing number of housing societies are also now requiring a Kaveri-registered copy before they'll let a new tenant move in, regardless of what the law technically requires. In practice, most landlords and tenants who understand the new framework are just registering everything.

What happens if you skip it

Getting this wrong isn't a minor paperwork slip. An improperly stamped or unregistered agreement (where registration was required) can mean:

• The agreement is inadmissible as primary evidence in a dispute
• Penalties of up to 10 times the deficient stamp duty amount
• Real friction with housing societies, banks, and police tenant-verification processes, several of which now expect a Kaveri-registered document as standard

What to actually do

1. Check your current agreements. If you're mid-lease with a deposit above two months, start planning for renewal terms that comply with the new cap.
2. Use e-stamping for every new agreement, no exceptions — physical stamp paper isn't valid anymore.
3. If your lease runs 12 months or more, register it through Kaveri Online Services. Both parties will need Aadhaar-linked mobile numbers for the e-KYC step.
4. Even for 11-month agreements, consider registering anyway if the tenancy is high-value, long-term in practice (repeatedly renewed), or if your housing society requires it for move-in.

Where this fits with how you manage rent

This is exactly the kind of thing that's easy to lose track of when you're running WhatsApp reminders and a spreadsheet across a handful of units — a compliance deadline quietly slips, and you find out the hard way when a dispute comes up years later.

Landly keeps this side of things visible alongside your actual rent collection — one place to see every unit, every tenant, every due date, without hunting through old chat threads to remember what you agreed to and when.

This article is general information, not legal advice. Rules and enforcement can change; for a specific tenancy or dispute, consult a lawyer familiar with Karnataka rent law.