Law 20/2011 in English: strata buildings, article by article

An apartment or condotel unit in Bali is a satuan rumah susun. This is the law that decides what you own, what you share, how it is sold off-plan and who runs the building.

Law 20/2011, the articles a strata buyer meets, in order

An apartment, a condotel suite or a unit in a villa complex divided into strata is a satuan rumah susun, and this is its law. It decides what you own, what you share, the certificate that proves it, when it may be sold off-plan and who runs the building. The 2023 job-creation law amended parts of it and added the article on who may hold strata title.

What you own, and what you share

Strata ownership is an individual right to the unit, separate from the shared right in the common parts, common fixtures and common land (Law 20/2011 art. 46(1)). Your share of what is common is set by the NPP — a proportion fixed in the deed of division — and it decides both your share of the land and your vote. The certificate is a bundle: a copy of the land book and survey for the common land, the floor plan showing the unit, and the deed of division (pertelaan) setting the unit's share (Law 20/2011 art. 47(3)). A strata certificate without the floor plan and the pertelaan is not the whole certificate.

Where the building stands on leased state or wakaf land, the evidence is different: an SKBG sarusun, issued by the regency's building agency, for a building on state or wakaf land held by lease (Law 20/2011 art. 48(1), (3)). That is a building certificate, not a land certificate, and it is mortgaged by fiduciary security rather than by hak tanggungan (art. 48(4)).

Who may hold it

Strata title may be held by Indonesian citizens and legal entities, foreign citizens holding the required permit, foreign legal entities with a representative office, and foreign-state and international representations (Law 6/2023 (Perppu 2/2022) art. 144(1)). The building may stand on HGB or hak pakai over state land or over hak pengelolaan land (Law 6/2023 (Perppu 2/2022) art. 145(1)). For a foreigner the conditions in PP 18/2021 still apply: a foreigner’s home in a strata building is limited to commercial-category strata units (Permen ATR/BPN 18/2021 art. 186(1)(b)). What a foreigner can hold, and the limits.

Off-plan units: the law and the regulation say the same thing

Marketing before construction requires zoning certainty, land-right certainty, certainty of the ownership status, a building permit, and a construction guarantee from a guarantor (Law 20/2011 art. 42(2)), and whatever was promised is binding as a PPJB (Law 20/2011 art. 42(3)) — the brochure is part of the deal. A PPJB requires land ownership status, a PBG, infrastructure, at least 20% built, and what was promised (Law 20/2011 art. 43(2), as amended by Law 6/2023); a developer may not make a PPJB that does not match what was marketed, or a PPJB before the art. 43(2) conditions are met (Law 20/2011 art. 98). The sale after completion is an AJB, once there is an SLF and the strata certificate (SHM sarusun or SKBG sarusun) (Law 20/2011 art. 44(2)). The housing regulation adds the payment cap, the refund rules and the seven-day review — PP 12/2021.

The building after handover: PPPSRS

The developer manages the building for at most one year from the first handover of a unit (Law 20/2011 art. 59(2)). By the end of that period the owners must form an owners' and occupiers' association (PPPSRS), which is a legal entity (Law 20/2011 art. 74(1), (3)), the developer must facilitate it, and once it exists the developer must hand over management of the common parts, fixtures and land (Law 20/2011 art. 75(2)). The association votes by NPP on ownership and management, one vote per member on occupancy (Law 20/2011 art. 77).

For an investor buying into a condotel or a managed complex, two articles matter. Renting a unit out requires a written agreement before the authorized official, registered with the PPPSRS (Law 20/2011 art. 45(5)-(6)). And no one may change the function and use of a unit (Law 20/2011 art. 99(c)) — whether letting a residential unit by the night is a change of its use is not answered in the law, and we do not answer it either. Ask what function the building’s PBG gives it. Building functions.

What is not here

The details of PPPSRS — its articles, the transition, the handover — are delegated to a government regulation (art. 78) we have not read for this page. Developers of commercial buildings must also provide at least 20% of the commercial floor area as public housing, convertible into a payment (Law 20/2011 art. 16(2), (4), as amended by Law 6/2023); that is the developer’s obligation, not the buyer’s.

This is commentary, not legal advice. The official Indonesian text on JDIH BPK is the authority.

Questions on this page