Myth Buster

Scenario

In a landlord and tenant scenario, tenancy agreements are often unstamped due to various reasons. Sometimes it could be due to carelessness and other times it is because the parties want to save money and avoid paying the stamping fees.

Section 52 of the Stamp Act 1949 states that instruments chargeable with duty not duly stamped shall be inadmissible evidence. Hence, do make sure that all tenancy agreements are duly stamped to ensure that it is admissible in court in the event it needs to be enforced.

But what if you have a tenancy agreement signed long ago that is unstamped and you would like to have it enforced in court? Is all legal recourse lost?

In practice, all one needs to do is get the tenancy agreement stamped and then it’s legally admissible in court. However, there is a penalty if the tenancy agreement has lapsed for more than 30 days after it has been executed in Malaysia.

Mythbusted.

Therefore if you are faced with a scenario whereby you have a tenancy agreement that is unstamped but you would like to enforce it and adduce it as evidence in court, all one needs to do is pay the penalty and then get the agreement stamped. But to avoid the penalty and all unnecessary hassles, do get your tenancy agreement stamped at the material time.