Can a Bali sertipikat still be challenged after 5 years? Some routes close; overlap cancellation has no deadline
The five-year bar in PP 24/1997 protects only a holder who bought in good faith and actually possesses the land. PP 18/2021 allows cancellation for an administrative defect only within five years of issuance, and sets no deadline at all where two titles overlap.
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There is no single deadline for challenging an Indonesian land certificate (sertipikat): the challenger and the route decide. PP 24/1997 bars a claimant who spent 5 years neither objecting in writing nor suing, and only where the holder bought in good faith and possesses the land. PP 18/2021 sets no period at all where land rights overlap.
Sources accessed 29/09/2026
A Bali land purchase closes on a sertipikat — a certificate issued by the land office, in somebody’s name. How long can it still be attacked, and by whom? Two regulations answer, and between them run two clocks and one route with no clock at all.
Article 32(2) of Government Regulation 24 of 1997 bars another party who believes it holds rights over registered land from demanding them, if for 5 years from issuance it neither objected in writing nor sued, and only where the holder acquired the land in good faith and actually possesses it.1JDIH Kementerian Agraria dan Tata Ruang/Badan Pertanahan Nasional, Last reviewed The ministry’s English translation puts the second half of Article 32(2) this way: “any other parties which think they have the rights can no longer claim for these rights if within 5 (five) years following the issuance of the certificate, they never raised their objections in writing to the holder of the certificate and to the Head of the relevant Land Office and never filed a lawsuit with the Court over the possession of the land parcel in question or the issuance of the certificate.”2JDIH Kementerian Agraria dan Tata Ruang/Badan Pertanahan Nasional, Last reviewedTwo phrases do the work. The bar falls on any other party which thinks it has the rights — we found nothing in either regulation exempting the holder of a second, overlapping certificate. And it presumes neither the good faith nor the possession it requires of the holder.
The elucidation says why the bar exists: Indonesian land registration uses a negative publication system, in which the State does not guarantee the registered data — and adds that the system is not meant to be purely negative, and that paragraph (2) was enacted for that reason.1JDIH Kementerian Agraria dan Tata Ruang/Badan Pertanahan Nasional, Last reviewedThe second clock is not a rival claimant’s. Article 64(1)(a) of Government Regulation 18 of 2021 allows a land right to be cancelled for an administrative defect only before 5 years run from issuance, and then only where the right was issued for the first time and not yet transferred, or transferred without good faith on the parties’ side.4JDIH Kementerian Perumahan dan Kawasan Permukiman, Last reviewed Article 64 names no one who cancels; where the regulation does name an actor for an administrative defect it is the minister, as in Article 14(1)(a), and Article 1 point 20 defines the land office as a vertical office of the ministry.4JDIH Kementerian Perumahan dan Kawasan Permukiman, Last reviewed
Article 64 changes the picture twice. Article 64(1)(b) allows the same cancellation where land rights overlap, and attaches no period to that case.4JDIH Kementerian Perumahan dan Kawasan Permukiman, Last reviewed Article 64(2) provides that once the 5 years in point (a) has been exceeded, cancellation is carried out through the court mechanism.4JDIH Kementerian Perumahan dan Kawasan Permukiman, Last reviewed A rule moving a dispute into another forum is not one that ends it.
On a leasehold the certificate stays in the Indonesian owner’s name, so the bar and the protection belong to whoever is named on it; a lessee holds a contract, and Article 32 is not about contracts.
Where we may be wrong. We have read the regulations and not a single judgment. The Supreme Court’s decision database and its legal-documentation portal both refused us on 27 September 2026, so we can report what the text provides, not how often the bar holds. It cuts one way: read good faith and actual possession strictly, and the bar protects far fewer holders than the text suggests. A legal-clinic page says the Court’s criteria for a good-faith buyer sit in Surat Edaran Mahkamah Agung 4 of 2016; we could not open it, and left it out rather than quote it at second hand.
The issuing ministry’s catalogue record for Regulation 24 of 1997 carried the status Berlaku — in force — when we read it on 27 September 2026.3JDIH Kementerian Agraria dan Tata Ruang/Badan Pertanahan Nasional, Last reviewed Article 103 of the 2021 regulation revoked two earlier regulations outright and, of Regulation 24 of 1997, only the announcement periods in Article 26(1) and the provision in Article 45(1)(e).4JDIH Kementerian Perumahan dan Kawasan Permukiman, Last reviewed Article 32 is not among the provisions revoked.
We read the 1997 regulation and its translation on the land ministry’s legal-documentation portal and the 2021 regulation on the housing ministry’s; a Government Regulation is issued by the President, not by either. The land ministry’s portal also catalogues the 2021 regulation, and that record read Berlaku — in force — when we opened it on 29 September 2026.5JDIH Kementerian Agraria dan Tata Ruang/Badan Pertanahan Nasional, Last reviewed
Sources
- Peraturan Pemerintah Nomor 24 Tahun 1997 tentang Pendaftaran Tanah — JDIH Kementerian Agraria dan Tata Ruang/Badan Pertanahan Nasional A · primary source · accessed
- Regulation of the Government of the Republic of Indonesia Number 24 of 1997 on Land Registration — JDIH Kementerian Agraria dan Tata Ruang/Badan Pertanahan Nasional A · accessed
- Peraturan Pemerintah Nomor 24 Tahun 1997 tentang Pendaftaran Tanah — JDIH Kementerian Agraria dan Tata Ruang/Badan Pertanahan Nasional A · accessed
- Peraturan Pemerintah Nomor 18 Tahun 2021 tentang Hak Pengelolaan, Hak Atas Tanah, Satuan Rumah Susun dan Pendaftaran Tanah — JDIH Kementerian Perumahan dan Kawasan Permukiman A · primary source · accessed
- Peraturan Pemerintah Nomor 18 Tahun 2021 tentang Hak Pengelolaan, Hak Atas Tanah, Satuan Rumah Susun, Dan Pendaftaran Tanah — JDIH Kementerian Agraria dan Tata Ruang/Badan Pertanahan Nasional A · accessed
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