An independent house is not a flat with a garden. The things that go wrong are different, and a template agreement written for apartments will miss most of them. These are the clauses that matter for a house.
Water is the big one
Many independent houses in south Bengaluru run partly or wholly on borewell or tanker water rather than a Cauvery connection. Who pays for a tanker, how often one is ordered, and what happens if the borewell fails are all worth writing down. In an apartment the association handles this invisibly; in a house it becomes an argument.
Separate meters, or not
Where an owner has divided a house into portions, electricity and water are often on a single connection with an informal split. If your portion is not separately metered, the agreement should say exactly how the bill is apportioned. "We will work it out" is how people end up in disputes six months later.
Owner living on the ground floor
Extremely common here, and it changes the tenancy. Worth setting out: access timings, whether the owner may enter the let portion and on what notice, shared gate and parking use, and any restriction on visitors or noise. Being explicit is kinder to both sides than leaving it to goodwill.
Terrace, garden and outbuildings
Say whether the tenant has use of the terrace, and for what — drying clothes, a water tank, nothing at all. Same for a garden, a car porch, or a store room. If the owner intends to keep using the terrace, write that in rather than discovering it later.
Maintenance of the structure
Houses need repairs that flats do not: roof leaks, compound walls, gates, sump and overhead tank cleaning, pest treatment. Set out which of these fall to the owner and which to the tenant, and at what threshold. Leaking roof at the start of the monsoon is a bad moment to be reading an agreement that is silent on the point.
Parking and vehicles
How many vehicles, where, and whether the gate is shared. If there is a two-wheeler shed or a porch that accommodates one car only, name it.
What it costs and how long
Same as any residential agreement — stamp duty calculated from the Consideration Amount, usually ₹100 to ₹500; drafting quoted separately; notarisation from ₹200 if you need it. Thirty to sixty minutes at the counter, or send the details on WhatsApp and we will draft ahead.
Nearest areas we cover
These are the areas closest to our counter. We serve all of south Bengaluru — see every area we cover.