What documents should a Bali property owner keep?

In a registered system, losing your paperwork is inconvenient. In Bali, where Hak Sewa is not registered anywhere, the deed in your possession is a substantial part of the evidence that you hold anything at all.

Why it matters more here

A leasehold appears on no certificate and in no land office record. Your position rests on the notarial deed and the notary's record of it.

A buyer years from now will ask for the file. So will your heirs, so will a tax adviser, and so will anyone resolving a dispute.

A seller who can produce a complete file transacts faster and at a better price than one who cannot, and assembling it years later is genuinely difficult.

The purchase file

The original deed — the lease, or the AJB on a registered transfer — with the notary, and a certified copy with you.

The sworn translation of anything you signed.

The land certificate or a certified copy, depending on the structure.

The due diligence report your notary produced.

Evidence of payment — transfer confirmations from your own account, showing what was paid and when.

Tax evidence: BPHTB payment on a titled transfer, and the seller's disposal tax where relevant.

The notary's name and contact details, which is the item most often missing when someone else needs to act.

The building file

PBG, the building approval.

SLF, the certificate of fitness.

As-built drawings, showing what was actually constructed including anything that changed during the build.

Service locations — where water lines, electrical runs and drainage actually go. You will need this the first time something fails and reconstructing it later is expensive.

Warranties for equipment, waterproofing and structure, with terms and durations.

Manuals and certificates for pumps, filtration, aircon, water heating and solar.

The defects list from handover, and evidence it was cleared before retention was released.

Contractor and architect contracts.

The ongoing file

PBB receipts, every year. Arrears attach to the land and a buyer's notary will look.

Tax filings and payment evidence, both the national final tax on rental income and the regional accommodation tax administered by the regency, which platforms do not collect for you.

Trading records — month-by-month occupancy and revenue, operating costs, bank statements. Two to three years of this, evidenced, is what lets you sell on proven income rather than on a claim.

Insurance policies, with the exclusions you actually read.

The management agreement, and any variation to it.

Staff records — contracts, BPJS registration, THR payments, and accrued entitlements, which for long-serving staff run to many months of salary.

Any tenancy, with what has been paid and when.

Utility accounts and connection capacity records.

Company records, if applicable

Deed of establishment, ministerial approval, NIB, NPWP and NITKU. Shareholder resolutions, including the annual RUPS, which single-shareholder companies routinely forget and which a buyer's lawyer reviews. Annual accounts and audits. Monthly and annual tax filings. Quarterly LKPM investment activity reports. Corporate secretarial correspondence.

A company with a clean corporate record is saleable. One with a decade of filings and no resolutions is a finding waiting to become a discount.

Where to keep it

Digitise everything, and store it somewhere reachable from another country. This is the single most useful action in this article.

Keep certified copies physically, in Indonesia and outside it.

Tell someone. Your family should know the notary's name, where the deed is, and who is authorised to act. An heir who cannot find the deed, in a system with no register to fall back on, faces a difficult task in a language they may not read.

Appoint someone who can act, with a properly scoped power of attorney drafted by your own notary — specific, time-limited, with defined limits on what they may do, particularly whether they may receive funds.

The inheritance connection

A leasehold passes to your heirs only if the deed binds heirs and successors, and many do not.

Check yours. If it does not, approach the landowner now rather than leaving it, because it cannot be added unilaterally afterwards.

And make an Indonesian will covering your Indonesian assets, consistent with your home country will. A home will alone is slow, expensive and uncertain to apply to land here.