Rent Agreement in Uttar Pradesh: Rules, Stamp Duty, Registration and Clauses

A flat in Noida, Greater Noida, Ghaziabad, Lucknow or anywhere else in Uttar Pradesh is let under Uttar Pradesh law. Noida sits next to Delhi, and people carry Delhi formats across the border. The stamp calculation, the Rent Authority and the cap on the deposit are not the same. A ₹100 notarised page is the floor of the duty for a tiny rent. It is not the duty on a city flat.

This guide is for a residential letting of a flat or house in Uttar Pradesh. A shop lease, a paying-guest bed, agricultural land and a sale are different instruments. Use the Delhi rent agreement guide or the Haryana rent agreement guide if the building is in those territories. If you are buying, follow the property transaction checklist and the sale transaction workflow. Confirm the live stamp figure on the state’s registration system before anyone pays. Two different concessions have been in play since late 2025, and only a notified rate that the system actually charges is the amount due.

Which law governs a tenancy in Uttar Pradesh

Three frameworks sit on top of each other. Missing one of them is how a Noida tenancy ends up with a stamped paper that the Rent Authority has never seen, or a filed form that was never stamped.

• The Uttar Pradesh Regulation of Urban Premises Tenancy Act, 2021 (Act 16 of 2021) is the tenancy code for premises it covers. Section 4 says that, after the Act began, no one shall let or take premises except by an agreement in writing. For a residential tenancy of less than twelve months, the parties need not inform the Rent Authority. Every other tenancy has to be informed to the Rent Authority, jointly, in the First Schedule, within two months of the agreement. If they miss that, each of them must inform the Authority separately within one further month. The Authority then gives a unique identification number. The information, once filed, is conclusive proof of the facts of the tenancy. If it is not filed where the Act requires it, the landlord may seek eviction on that ground alone.
• The Transfer of Property Act, 1882 and the Registration Act, 1908 still decide how a lease is made and when the sub-registrar must record it. Section 107 of the Transfer of Property Act and Section 17(1)(d) of the Registration Act require a registered instrument, signed by both sides, where the lease is from year to year, for a term of more than one year, or reserves a yearly rent. Telling the Rent Authority does not replace that registration. Registering at the sub-registrar does not, by itself, satisfy Section 4 where the Rent Authority also has to be informed.
• The Indian Stamp Act, 1899, Schedule I-B as applicable to Uttar Pradesh, charges duty on the instrument. An 11-month residential tenancy can skip both the Rent Authority and the sub-registrar. It cannot skip the stamp, and it cannot skip the writing.

Section 3 keeps the 2021 Act off certain premises: those owned by the Central or State Government, a government enterprise, a statutory body or a cantonment board; premises a company, university or organisation lets to its own employees as part of service; premises of a religious or charitable institution the state has notified; waqf and registered public trust property; and any other building the state exempts by notification. The owner and the tenant of an exempt premises can still choose the Act and tell the Rent Authority. Civil courts do not try the matters the Act assigns to the Rent Authority and the Rent Tribunal.

Calling the document a licence does not take exclusive possession of a flat outside these rules. A family moving into a 3BHK has a lease.

What the 2021 Act fixes, and what it leaves to the draft

The Act is not a substitute for clauses. It sets outer limits and a forum. The commercial terms still have to be written.

• Deposit. Section 11 caps what the parties may agree: not more than two months’ rent for residential premises, and not more than six months’ rent for non-residential premises. The deposit is refunded when the landlord takes vacant possession, after deducting a liability the tenant actually owes. A demand for six months on a home, which is common in some other cities, is above the residential cap.
• Sub-letting. The tenant cannot sub-let without the written consent the Act requires. Write that consent threshold into the agreement instead of leaving it to a later argument.
• Essential supply. The landlord cannot cut water, electricity or any other essential supply or service to push the tenant out. Eviction, where the Act applies, goes through the Rent Authority on the grounds the Act lists, including non-payment, misuse and sub-letting. It does not go through a lock on the door.
• Both originals. The landlord and the tenant each keep an original of the agreement.

Rent revision should be written. If the agreement is silent, a later increase is a dispute in front of the Rent Authority rather than a number both sides already accepted. Prefer a stated percentage or a stated rupee increase, and the date it applies. If there is no increase during the term, say so.

Why 11 months is still used

A residential term of less than twelve months does not have to be reported to the Rent Authority, and a term of not more than one year that does not reserve a yearly rent is not compulsorily registrable. The agreement still has to be in writing, stamped, and signed. Possession should follow the signing.

Three drafts undo that simplicity:

• The same document already fixes a second 11 months, so the term exceeds a year and must be registered.
• Rent is reserved as a yearly sum. A yearly rent makes the lease registrable even when the calendar looks short.
• The tenant is allowed to hold over for an indefinite period. Under an explanation to Article 35, a lease with no fixed period, or a fixed period plus a right to hold over indefinitely, is treated as a lease with no definite term. Duty on that lease is charged as a conveyance on the market value of the property, not on the rent. Do not add “and thereafter from month to month until either side decides” unless you have priced that duty.

A renewal is a fresh instrument, with fresh stamp and, if the new term needs it, fresh registration and a fresh filing with the Rent Authority. The rent agreement workflow keeps the end date on the same record as the original.

What to settle before the challan

Who signs

• Every owner on the title, or a specific authority from the owners who will not sign.
• Every adult tenant who will be in possession.
• The company, HUF or firm signatory, with the resolution or authority letter.
• If a manager will deal with the tenant, the authority of that manager, because Section 4 says those terms belong in the agreement.

The premises

• Flat or house number, tower, floor, sector or mohalla, district and PIN code. “Near the Noida expressway” is not a description.
• Whether the title is a freehold sale deed, a leasehold from an authority, or a builder buyer agreement on which conveyance is still pending. Let only what the title allows.
• Parking, furnishings and a signed inventory. Photograph the flat on the handover day.
• Residential use, unless the sanctioned use allows something else. A residential flat used as an office is a different bargain.

Stamp duty

For the letting that actually happens in Noida or Lucknow — a building or a flat, for a term of not more than five years — a proviso to Article 35 of Schedule I-B replaces the general lease table. Duty is 2% of the whole rent payable over the entire term, plus any fine, premium or money advanced that the lease states. The result is rounded up to the next multiple of ₹10. It cannot be less than ₹100, and it cannot be more than ₹10,000.

That ceiling is why a long city rent and a short city rent can carry the same stamp. It is also why ₹100 is the wrong default. ₹100 is only the duty when 2% of the whole rent and any advance is ₹100 or less, which is a total of ₹5,000 or less across the whole term.

A recurring charge the tenant agrees to pay, which the law can recover from the landlord, counts as rent. Rent paid in advance counts as money advanced unless the lease says it will be set off against the last instalments of rent. A refundable deposit should be worded as a deposit, with the two-month residential cap, and you should ask the stamp system whether it is adding that sum into the 2% base. On most urban flats the ₹10,000 ceiling is reached on the rent alone, so the practical question is whether you are under the ceiling or on it.

Two examples under the standing rule

• 11 months at ₹20,000 a month, deposit of two months kept outside the rent. Whole rent is ₹2,20,000. Duty at 2% is ₹4,400. That is above the ₹100 floor and below the ₹10,000 ceiling.
• Three years at ₹40,000 a month, no increase. Whole rent is ₹14,40,000. Two percent is ₹28,800, which the proviso cuts to ₹10,000 because the premises are a flat and the term does not exceed five years.

A seven-year lease of the same flat does not get that ceiling. It is charged as a conveyance on four times the average annual rent. Price that before you sign a single long deed, or renew inside five years and stamp each term under the ceiling.

Concessions that are easy to misread

On 19 November 2025 the state notified a six-month remission, under Section 9 of the Stamp Act and Section 78-A of the Registration Act, of stamp duty and registration fee above fixed caps. The caps apply to lease deeds under Article 35 whose average annual rent is within the bands below, for a term up to ten years. Toll and mining leases are excluded. The remission of the excess runs for six months from publication in the official gazette, so it is not a permanent rate. Check whether a later notification extended it before you budget from this table.

The same figures were the maximum registration fee for those classes during that window. They are ceilings on the duty and the fee, not a new minimum. You pay the lower of the schedule calculation and the cap, and only while the notification is in force.

In September 2026 the state cabinet approved a fresh set of caps for leases up to ten years, including a benefit on the first ₹10 lakh of average annual rent where the rent is higher than that, again excluding toll and mining. The figures reported with that decision put stamp duty, with an equal registration fee on top, at ₹1,000, ₹2,000 and ₹4,000 across the three term bands where annual rent is up to ₹2 lakh; at ₹3,000, ₹6,000 and ₹8,000 where annual rent is above ₹2 lakh and up to ₹6 lakh; and at ₹4,500, ₹10,000 and ₹13,000 where annual rent is above ₹6 lakh and up to ₹10 lakh. A cabinet approval is not the challan. Pay the figure the e-stamp and the sub-registrar’s system compute after the decision has been notified.

Registration at the sub-registrar

Register the lease if the term exceeds one year, it runs from year to year, or it reserves a yearly rent. Present it within four months of execution. Uttar Pradesh registration runs through the Inspector General of Registration, on the state’s own portal, for the sub-registrar in whose jurisdiction the property sits. Both parties appear, with witnesses and original identity documents.

An Aadhaar e-sign does not replace attendance where the Registration Act requires the deed to be registered. For a true residential term under twelve months, e-stamping and e-signing against a correct stamp is a practical way to finish the writing Section 4 requires. The rent agreement workflow is that sequence: draft, review, e-stamp, e-sign, and the renewal.

Clauses worth writing even where the Act already speaks

• Full names, addresses, Aadhaar and PAN of every landlord and every tenant, and how the landlord holds title.
• Start date and end date. Monthly rent in figures and words, the due date, and the bank account. Do not reserve a “yearly rent” if you intend to stay under compulsory registration.
• Who pays maintenance, parking, water and GST. Escalation, or a line that rent will not rise during the term.
• Deposit within the two-month residential cap, the only deductions, and refund when vacant possession is taken.
• Lock-in and notice, for both sides, and how notice is delivered. The tenant’s notice for giving up possession should be the period you have actually agreed.
• Residential use, no sub-letting without written consent, no structural change, and a split of structural repairs and day-to-day repairs.
• No withholding of essential supply. Eviction only through the process the law provides.
• Police verification before or at move-in, and an inventory annexure.
• Who bears stamp duty and the registration fee. Each side keeps an original.
• Property manager, if there is one, and the limits of that person’s authority.

Customers usually do this for one flat. Brokers doing several Noida or Lucknow lettings need the deposit cap and the stamp base applied the same way each time. Builders leasing ready homes need the term drafted so it does not accidentally become a lease with no definite term. The government fee is still paid on the stamp and registration system.

Police verification and tax

Police verification does not create the tenancy. In Noida, Ghaziabad, Lucknow and other cities the local police and the residents’ association still expect the tenant’s identity and previous address before a move-in. File it with the agreement. Keep the acknowledgement.

• House rent allowance. The tenant needs the agreement and proof of payment. If rent in the year exceeds ₹1,00,000, the landlord’s name and PAN have to be furnished.
• TDS under Section 194-IB. An individual or HUF tenant who is not under tax audit, paying more than ₹50,000 a month for land or a building, deducts tax. The rate was reduced to 2% from 1 October 2024. Confirm the rate for the month of deduction. The agreement should already carry the landlord’s PAN.
• TDS under Section 194-I is the section for companies, firms and other payers. The rate on rent of land and building is generally 10%, once the year’s threshold is crossed. That threshold is not the 194-IB threshold. The payer’s accountant should confirm the year’s figure.
• GST. Rent of a residential dwelling for residence is generally outside GST when the tenant is not registered. A residential dwelling let to a registered tenant can fall under reverse charge. Commercial rent can be taxable. Do not write a GST line until the person filing the return has confirmed it.

A practical sequence

1. Agree rent, a residential deposit of not more than two months, dates, escalation and who pays maintenance. Keep the term definite.
2. Draft the writing Section 4 requires. If the term is twelve months or more, or the premises are not residential, plan the Rent Authority filing inside two months.
3. Compute stamp on the flat proviso if the term is five years or less: 2% of the whole rent and any money advanced, then apply ₹100 and ₹10,000, then check whether a notified concession lowers the ceiling.
4. Generate the e-stamp in the correct names.
5. Sign. Register at the sub-registrar within four months if Section 17 requires it. Inform the Rent Authority if Section 4 requires it, and keep the unique number.
6. File police verification, photograph the inventory, and pay the deposit and the first rent by bank.
7. Diary the end date. A new term needs new stamp, and a new filing if the new term is no longer a short residential tenancy.

Questions people ask before they sign

Is an 11-month agreement allowed?

Yes. It has to be in writing and stamped. A residential term under twelve months need not be informed to the Rent Authority, and a term of not more than one year need not be registered, if it does not reserve a yearly rent. ₹100 stamp paper is enough only when the calculated duty is ₹100.

Is two months’ deposit the maximum on a home?

Yes, for residential premises covered by the 2021 Act. The parties can agree less. They cannot agree more than two months’ rent. Non-residential premises can go up to six months.

Does filing with the Rent Authority replace registration?

No. A lease of more than one year still has to be registered under the Registration Act. A tenancy that is not a short residential letting still has to be informed under Section 4. Do both when both apply.

Does the ₹10,000 cap cover a nine-year lease?

No. The cap in the Article 35 proviso is for a building or flat let for not more than five years. A longer term is charged on a multiple of average annual rent, as a conveyance, unless a concession that is actually in force covers that term.

Who pays the stamp?

Write it down. If the agreement is silent, sort it before the challan is generated rather than at the counter. Registration fee, where you register, belongs in the same sentence.

To keep the draft, the stamp and the renewal together, start from the rent agreement workflow or talk to PropTrak. Fees for the workflow are on the pricing page. More notes sit under rentals and renewals and stamp duty and registration.

This is a practical guide to a private residential letting in Uttar Pradesh. It is not legal, tax or registration advice. The November 2025 caps were time-limited, and the September 2026 cabinet decision applies only once it is notified. Have the duty confirmed on the stamp system, and have a local advocate read the draft, before you pay the deposit or book the sub-registrar.