Due diligence checklist

Print this. Take it to viewings. If a seller or agent gets defensive about any line on it, that is the answer.

Before you pay a deposit

• Original certificate sighted, SHM, SHGB or SHP, not a photocopy, not a photo
• Certificate verified at the local BPN office by your own notary
• Land physically walked with GPS against the cadastral drawing
• Zoning confirmed on GISTARU or at the regency planning office, not from the agent
• Zoning permits your intended use (pink for commercial rental; yellow and green do not)
• No hak tanggungan (mortgage or lien) registered against the title
• No dispute, no overlapping certificate, no sertifikat ganda
• Seller identity confirmed against KTP and family card
• Spouse consent obtained where land is joint marital property
• All heirs identified and consenting where the land came through inheritance
• PBB (annual land tax) receipts current, no arrears

Before you sign

• Access road confirmed as legal right of way, in writing, with width recorded
• Setbacks checked, beach, river, cliff, and any temple or sacred-site buffer
• PBG (building permit) exists for every structure on the plot
• SLF (fitness certificate) issued
• If leasehold: extension clause is unconditional, priced or formula-based, and binds the owner's heirs and successors
• If leasehold: transfer and sublease rights are explicit
• If buying a company: full corporate, tax and licensing due diligence, and confirmation the LKPM reports are filed
• Your own notary or PPAT engaged, not the one the seller brought

Before you complete

• Funds moving by bank transfer only, never cash
• BPHTB and seller's PPh calculated and provably paid before the deed
• Deed executed in front of a PPAT, not a private agreement
• Registration at BPN confirmed, and you hold the receipt
• Every promise made verbally by the agent is written into the deed, or it does not exist

If you are being told to move fast, that is the pressure working. Nothing legitimate in Indonesian land transfer requires you to skip a step.