Bali Property Due Diligence Checklist: 25 Checks Before You Pay a Deposit

A deposit changes your leverage. Before sending it, identify the exact parcel, the party receiving the money, the rights being transferred, and the conditions under which the deposit is refundable. A reservation form and marketing deck cannot answer those questions.

Appoint Indonesian counsel who is independent of the seller, developer, and agent. For a completed or partly built property, also appoint an independent surveyor or engineer. Their scope should cover the actual parcel and your intended use, rather than a similar development or a general explanation of Bali property rules.

Start with an evidence standard

Indonesian land rights and registration sit within a formal legal framework, including Government Regulation No. 18 of 2021. Current legal materials can also be checked through the ATR/BPN legal information portal. These sources establish the framework, but they do not confirm the status of a particular property. Your counsel must verify that separately.

Use this evidence hierarchy when reviewing a deal:

What you are told	Evidence to request	Buyer response
Marketing statement	None by itself	Treat as unverified
Seller or developer statement	Signed representation or contract term	Check scope, exceptions, and remedy
Land or permit claim	Parcel-specific official record or approval	Have independent counsel authenticate it
Construction claim	Drawings, contract, site records, and inspection	Have an independent technician compare document to site

Every material promise should end up in an authenticated record, an executed agreement, or a technical report.

Land and parties: checks 1 to 6

1. Identify the land right. Receive a legible copy of the land certificate or the underlying owner’s certificate for a lease. Ask counsel for written verification against current ATR/BPN records and an explanation of what the right permits.

2. Match the parcel. Obtain the survey drawing, parcel number, stated area, and boundary information. Have a surveyor check whether the occupied site, access, walls, and buildings correspond with those documents.

3. Check burdens and disputes. Counsel should investigate registered security interests, seizures, competing claims, and known disputes. Receive a written search report that states its sources, date, and limits.

4. Verify every party. Collect identification for individual parties and constitutional documents for companies. Confirm that the seller, lessor, developer, contractor, and deposit recipient are correctly named.

5. Confirm signing authority. Receive powers of attorney, company approvals, and any other consent that counsel considers necessary. The person presenting the project may not be the person legally able to bind it.

6. Test the ownership or lease structure. Ask counsel to map the complete chain from registered landholder to buyer. For a lease, record the start date, expiry, extension mechanism, payment status, transfer rights, inheritance treatment, termination events, and remedies. Foreign buyers should also read the structural issues in Foreigners buying property in Bali.

Zoning and permits: checks 7 to 11

7. Confirm parcel-specific zoning. Receive current written evidence for the actual plot, not a screenshot of a broad area map. Counsel should state which authority or official system produced it and when it was checked.

8. Match zoning to intended use. A designation that permits a residence does not automatically establish that your planned rental or hospitality operation is allowed. Obtain written advice covering the intended building and operating use.

9. Review building approval. Receive the applicable building approval and approved drawings. Names and requirements can depend on the project’s timing and status, so counsel should identify what approval applies rather than relying on terminology in a sales deck.

10. Check completion or use documents. For an existing building, obtain the completion, fitness, or use documentation applicable to that property. Compare the approved plans with what was actually constructed.

11. Verify legal access and site constraints. Establish the legal basis for road access, rather than relying on visible access. Also document utility arrangements and any parcel-specific environmental, setback, height, or similar restrictions identified by counsel or the technical reviewer.

Build and contract: checks 12 to 16

12. Fix the scope. Receive the signed build contract, coordinated drawings, specifications, finish schedule, and inclusions list. Furniture, landscaping, pools, equipment, and utility connections should be expressly included or excluded.

13. Interrogate the price. Ask for a contract sum and payment schedule tied to defined work stages. Identify provisional allowances, currency exposure, escalation clauses, and items that can create variations.

14. Verify progress independently. For off-plan or active construction, receive a dated development schedule and site status report. Your surveyor should verify milestones before related payments. See Buying an off-plan villa in Bali for the wider risk framework.

15. Read delay and variation clauses. Record the completion definition, extension events, notice procedure, buyer-requested change process, delay consequences, termination rights, and refund mechanics. A target month in a brochure is not a contractual delivery date.

16. Allocate construction risk. Confirm responsibility for approvals, site safety, damage, contractor performance, defects, warranties, and insurance where applicable. Receive the proposed inspection and defects process before signing.

Economics and operation: checks 17 to 21

17. Build a total cash worksheet. List deposit, purchase or lease payments, construction, furnishing, professional costs, taxes, registration, utilities, operating setup, and contingency. Have counsel and an accountant identify uncertain items instead of inserting an assumed rate.

18. Allocate taxes and fees. The contract should state who pays each tax, government charge, professional fee, commission, and renewal cost. Obtain advice for your structure and transaction rather than reusing another buyer’s calculation.

19. Separate forecasts from evidence. Label occupancy, nightly rate, revenue, expenses, and yield as operator-reported or illustrative unless supported by records relevant to the property. Request the assumptions, management deductions, replacement reserves, and sensitivity case.

20. Review the operating contract. Receive the management agreement and any mandatory supplier terms. Check duration, exclusivity, fees, owner-use restrictions, reporting, bank control, termination, data access, and treatment of guest liabilities.

21. Confirm that operation is lawful and practical. Ask counsel which registrations, licences, approvals, and operating structure apply to your intended model. Then test staffing, access, power, water, waste, maintenance, and emergency arrangements on site.

Closing and handover: checks 22 to 25

22. Write deposit conditions. The deposit document should identify the property, recipient, amount, deadline, due-diligence conditions, refund triggers, default outcomes, and governing documents. Do not assume a deposit is refundable because the main contract is unsigned.

23. Set the execution and funds protocol. Independent counsel should confirm which documents require a PPAT, notary, or other formal process, and who may receive funds at each stage. Remote buyers should establish identity, signing, and document-control procedures described in Buying Bali property remotely.

24. Define the closing file. Require executed agreements, receipts, title or lease evidence, approvals, approved plans, warranties, manuals, keys, inventories, account transfers, and final payment records. For a lease, retain evidence of the landowner’s title and authority alongside the executed lease.

25. Inspect before acceptance. Have the independent technical inspector compare the property with the contract and approved drawings, test accessible systems, photograph defects, and issue a written snag list. Tie final acceptance and any retained payment to a documented remedy process.

Project-specific, operator-reported disclosure: Pronoia states that its buyers receive the land title, lease terms, build contract, and Development Status Schedule before payment. That is a Pronoia process, not a market-wide rule; the current description is on its villa ownership page. Buyers should still have their own counsel and technical adviser review those materials.

Before authorising a deposit, mark each check green, unresolved, or unacceptable. For every unresolved item, name the missing document, responsible party, and deadline. Pay only when your independent counsel confirms that the legal conditions are satisfied and your technical reviewer has cleared the stage relevant to the payment.