Registration of Rent/ Lease Agreement
If your lease agreement is for a year or more, it is compulsory to register it with the office of the sub-registrar of the city you are living in. It must be registered within 4 months from when the lease agreement was made. If the agreement is not registered, it will not be accepted as evidence by court, if or when a case if filed in relation to the rented property.
Registration of your agreement is also a measure to ensure that your landlord does not charge you anything extra apart from what was already agreed upon or coerce you into any illegal transactions.
This is the reason why most agreements are for a period of 11 months, so as to avoid this registration process. In such cases, you need not register the agreement, but only notarise it.
However, in some cities, like Mumbai, where a leave and license agreement is used, it is compulsory to register the agreement, irrespective of the duration of tenancy. In Maharashtra, all agreements of tenancy, be it lease or leave and license, must be compulsorily registered by law.
Notarising Your Agreement
It is necessary to notarise any kind of rental agreement, if it is not being registered. This is because the agreement between you and your landlord is a contract and all contracts are usually validated by a notary. Notarising the agreement gives validity to your document and also affirms that the parties signing the agreement are in fact who they are. This not only ensures you of your rights and duties, but in case the matter goes to court, a notarised agreement is likely to not be disputed.