What Happens If You Don't Stamp Your Tenancy Agreement in Singapore
Short version: an unstamped tenancy agreement cannot be admitted as evidence in court.
That is the part people underestimate. Most conversations about stamp duty focus on the penalty, which is usually modest. The real exposure is that the document you'd rely on in a dispute is the one you skipped — and you only discover that at the exact moment you need it.
Here's what the rules actually are, what happens if you missed the deadline, and how to fix it.
What stamp duty on a lease actually is
Stamp duty is a tax on the document, not on the transaction. Paying it is what makes the agreement a stamped instrument, which is what makes it admissible.
The rate is 0.4% of the total rent for the lease period:
Total rent = Average Annual Rent × chargeable years
On a one-year lease at S$3,000 a month, the annual rent is S$36,000 and the duty is S$144. On a two-year lease at the same rent it's S$288.
Three details that change the number:
Average Annual Rent includes more than rent. Service charge, maintenance fees, and payments for furniture and fittings all count as consideration paid to the landlord. If you're paying S$3,000 rent plus S$200 a month for a furnished package, your AAR is S$38,400, not S$36,000. Leaving these out is the most common way people accidentally under-declare.
Long leases are capped at four years. Leases over four years, and leases that are indefinite or renewable, are charged on four years regardless of the actual term. A ten-year lease pays the four-year equivalent.
Very low rents are exempt. If the average annual rent is S$1,000 or below, no duty is payable.
You can work out your exact figure with our free stamp duty calculator, which also shows your filing deadline.
Who pays it?
By convention in Singapore, the tenant pays. But convention isn't law — your tenancy agreement can assign it to either party, and IRAS will hold you to whatever the agreement says.
If your agreement is silent on the point, expect a disagreement. Write it in.
The deadline
14 days from signing if the agreement was signed in Singapore. 30 days if it was signed outside Singapore.
The clock starts at signing, not at move-in, and not at the start of the lease term. If you sign in January for a March tenancy, your deadline is in January.
What actually happens if you don't stamp
1. You can't rely on it in court
This is the one that matters. If your tenant stops paying, damages the unit, refuses to leave, or disputes the deposit, the tenancy agreement is the document that establishes what everyone agreed to. Unstamped, it cannot be admitted as evidence.
You can usually stamp it late and pay the penalty in order to use it — but you're now doing that under time pressure, mid-dispute, having already lost the initiative. Every carefully-worded clause about repairs, notice periods and deposit deductions is only as useful as your ability to put the document in front of a judge.
2. There's a penalty
IRAS imposes a penalty for late stamping, which scales with how late you are. It's typically not large in absolute terms compared to the rent — but it is entirely avoidable, and it's a bad look if the matter is already contested.
3. It quietly undermines everything else
An unstamped lease is often a symptom rather than the problem. Agreements that never get stamped tend to be the ones where nobody checked immigration status, nobody documented the condition of the property, and nobody registered the rental with HDB. If you skipped the stamping, it's worth checking what else got skipped.
What if I already missed the deadline?
Stamp it anyway, now, and pay the penalty.
The position gets worse the longer you leave it, and there is no version of this where an unstamped agreement is better than a late-stamped one. Late stamping is a normal, well-trodden process — IRAS deals with it constantly.
If the lease has already ended without incident, the practical risk has largely passed. If the lease is still running, stamp it today. If you are currently in a dispute, stamp it before you take any further step.
Does this apply to room rentals?
Yes. Stamp duty applies to the tenancy agreement, not to the type of property or the size of the let. A room rental with a written agreement is stampable on the same 0.4% basis.
If the average annual rent is S$1,000 or below — a room at under about S$83 a month — no duty is payable, which in practice almost never applies.
Does a verbal agreement help?
No, and it's worse. A verbal tenancy avoids the stamping question by having no document to stamp, but it also leaves you with nothing to enforce. Disputes then come down to two people's recollections, which is a far weaker position than a late-stamped written agreement.
How to avoid the whole problem
The deadline is missed for one reason: it's a separate manual step, on a portal you don't otherwise use, fourteen days after the part you cared about was finished. Nobody forgets on purpose.
Rentora files it for you. When a tenancy agreement is signed on the platform, the duty is calculated at 0.4%, the deadline is tracked, and the stamping is filed with IRAS through a direct integration — as part of the lease, not as a chore you have to remember. Alongside the HDB quota and ICA eligibility checks that happen before the agreement is drafted at all.
Quick answers
How much is stamp duty on a tenancy agreement? 0.4% of the total rent for the lease period. One year at S$3,000/month is S$144.
Who pays it, landlord or tenant? Conventionally the tenant, but the agreement decides.
How long do I have? 14 days from signing in Singapore, 30 days if signed overseas.
What if I don't stamp it? It can't be used as evidence in court, and IRAS imposes a late-stamping penalty.
Can I stamp it late? Yes, with a penalty. Do it as soon as you realise.
Do service charges count towards the duty? Yes. Anything else you pay the landlord — maintenance, furniture, fittings — forms part of the average annual rent.
Rates and rules verified against IRAS guidance in August 2026. This is general information, not tax or legal advice. See the IRAS stamp duty page for leases for the authoritative position.