Goa Tenant Verification Act 2024: Owner Duties

Last reviewed: 3 September 2026.

Goa now has its own standalone tenant verification law, and it puts the legal duty on you as the property owner rather than on the tenant or the broker. Most landlords in Goa still treat police verification as an optional formality that someone else handles. Since 24 October 2024 that is no longer correct, and the penalty falls on the owner.

If your case falls in a Yes row, sections 3, 4 and 5 apply to you personally as the owner.

The Act is short, and the whole citizen-facing duty sits in three sections.

Section 3(1): verify before you let, not after. Every owner shall, before allowing accommodation to any tenant in the State of Goa, verify the tenant's bonafides by obtaining and inspecting photo identity. The Act names four documents by way of example: election card, driving license, Aadhaar card and passport. The Government may add other documents by notification in the Official Gazette. Note the timing: the check is a pre-condition to letting, not a follow-up step.

Section 3(2): keep a record and submit it. Every owner must maintain a record of the tenant and submit that information in the form and manner, and to the officer, that the rules prescribe.

Section 4: the police can inspect at any time. A police officer not below the rank of Head Constable, or any other officer the Government specifies by gazette notification, is entitled to inspect the section 3 records at any time. There is no requirement of notice in the Act.

Section 5: the penalty. Failure to maintain and submit the information as required by section 3 is an offence punishable with a fine which may extend to Rs 10,000. The proviso allows the offence to be compounded by the Sub-Divisional Magistrate in whose jurisdiction the premises is situated, on payment to the Government of a sum not exceeding Rs 10,000.

Section 7 makes clear the Act is in addition to, and not in derogation of, any other law in force. So a general police requirement or a society rule does not replace this duty, and this duty does not cancel those.

Section 3(2) says the record must be submitted in such form and in such manner and to such officer, as may be prescribed. Section 9 gives the Government power to make rules for carrying out the Act. The operative detail, meaning the exact form, the exact officer and the exact deadline, therefore lives in rules made under section 9, not in the Act itself.

We could not confirm, from the Act text published on India Code, that those rules have been notified, and we are not going to invent a form number or a submission deadline for you. This is exactly the kind of question the Right to Information Act, 2005 is built for. Use the RTI route below to get the current position in writing from the department itself, and keep that reply on file as your evidence of compliance. If you are new to the process, start with how to file an RTI in India.

1. Ask for photo ID before the keys change hands. Collect one of the documents named in section 3(1): election card, driving licence, Aadhaar card or passport. Inspect the original, do not rely on a photo sent on WhatsApp.
2. Keep a legible copy with the date. Note the date you inspected the original. If you accept an Aadhaar card, use a masked Aadhaar copy so the full number is not sitting in your file.
3. Record every occupant, not only the person who signs. Section 2(e) defines a tenant as any person occupying the premises on rent or for other consideration, so record the adults actually living there.
4. Open a simple tenant register. One row per tenancy: tenant name, permanent address, ID type and number, phone number, start date, end date. Section 4 lets a Head Constable or above ask for this at any time.
5. Submit the details to the police. File the information through your local police station in Goa, and ask for an acknowledgement with a date stamp or a reference number. The acknowledgement is the proof that protects you under section 5.
6. Confirm the prescribed form by RTI. File an RTI with the Goa Police to obtain the notified rules, the prescribed form and the officer designated under section 3(2). Use the sample letter below.
7. Repeat for every new tenant. The duty attaches to each letting, so a renewal with a new occupant needs a fresh check and a fresh record.

• Copy of the tenant's photo ID, marked with the date you inspected the original.
• Your tenant register entry for that tenancy.
• The rent agreement or leave and licence agreement, if any.
• The police acknowledgement or receipt for the information you submitted.
• Any RTI reply confirming the prescribed form and the designated officer.
• Photographs of the premises let, useful if the tenancy is later disputed.

• Verifying after move in. Section 3(1) requires the check before allowing accommodation. A check done a month later does not meet the wording of the section.
• Assuming the broker did it. The Act places the duty on the owner. An agent's assurance is not a defence under section 5.
• Thinking a short let is exempt. The Act sets no minimum tenancy period. The exemption in section 2© is for rooms in hotels, lodging houses and guest houses registered under the Goa Registration of Tourist Trade Act, 1982, not for short stays generally. If you take paying guests in an unregistered property, read the legal risks of an unregistered homestay.
• Treating a rent free arrangement as outside the Act. Section 2(e) covers occupation for rent or for other consideration.
• Keeping no acknowledgement. Without proof of submission you cannot show compliance with section 3(2) if a Head Constable inspects under section 4.
• Storing a full unmasked Aadhaar number. Keep a masked copy. The Act asks you to inspect photo identity, not to build an Aadhaar database.

To
The Public Information Officer
Goa Police Headquarters, Panaji, Goa

Subject: Information under Section 6(1) of the Right to Information Act, 2005
regarding rules and forms under the Goa (Verification of Tenants) Act, 2024

Sir/Madam,

Please provide the following information:

1. A copy of the rules, if any, notified under Section 9 of the Goa
   (Verification of Tenants) Act, 2024 (Goa Act 26 of 2024), together with the
   gazette notification number and date.

2. The form prescribed under Section 3(2) of the said Act in which an owner
   must submit tenant information, and the manner of submission.

3. The designation and office address of the officer to whom an owner in
   [your taluka] must submit the information under Section 3(2).

4. Any notification issued under Section 3(1) specifying documents of photo
   identity in addition to the election card, driving licence, Aadhaar card
   and passport named in the Act.

5. The number of prosecutions launched under Section 5 of the said Act,
   year wise, from 24 October 2024 to the date of this application.

If any part of this request is held by another public authority, please
transfer that part under Section 6(3) of the RTI Act, 2005 within five days.

I enclose the prescribed application fee. Please supply the information
within 30 days as required by Section 7(1).

Yours faithfully,
[Name]
[Full postal address]
[Phone / email]
[Place, Date]

If the reply does not arrive within 30 days, that silence is a deemed refusal and you can move to a first appeal under section 19(1). The Timeline Tracker works out your appeal dates, and the AI RTI Drafter will format the application for you.

Section 1(3) said the Act would come into force on a date the Government appointed by notification. India Code records the enforcement date as 24 October 2024, against an enactment date of 18 October 2024. So the duties have been live since 24 October 2024.

Section 5 penalises the owner for failing to maintain and submit information as required by section 3. Your protection is to inspect the original document and keep a dated copy, which shows you carried out the verification the section asks for.

Yes. Section 2© defines premises to include any part of a house, flat, building or structure let for use as a residence, so letting a single room brings you within the Act.

Only if the room is in a hotel, lodging house or guest house registered under the Goa Registration of Tourist Trade Act, 1982 (Goa Act 10 of 1982). That is the exclusion written into section 2©. An unregistered property does not get the exemption.

Yes. Section 4 entitles a police officer not below the rank of Head Constable, or another officer specified by gazette notification, to inspect the section 3 records at any time. The Act does not require advance notice.

The fine may extend to Rs 10,000 under section 5. The proviso to section 5 allows the offence to be compounded by the Sub-Divisional Magistrate in whose jurisdiction the premises is situated, on payment to the Government of a sum not exceeding Rs 10,000.

Section 3(1) names the election card, driving licence, Aadhaar card and passport as examples of photo identity, and allows the Government to specify other documents by notification in the Official Gazette. Ask for the current notified list by RTI rather than assuming.

No. Section 7 says the Act is in addition to, and not in derogation of, any other law in force. Treat it as a statutory duty sitting on top of whatever procedure your local police station already follows. The general process is covered in tenant police verification delayed or rejected.

• The Goa (Verification of Tenants) Act, 2024 (Goa Act 26 of 2024), full text on India Code - sections 1 to 10, including the section 3 verification duty, the section 4 inspection power and the section 5 fine.
• India Code item metadata for the same Act, recording enactment date 18 October 2024 and enforcement date 24 October 2024.
• The Right to Information Act, 2005 - sections 6(1), 6(3), 7(1) and 19(1) used in the sample letter above.

• Tenant police verification delayed or rejected
• Unregistered homestay in India: the legal risks
• Legal checks before booking a homestay
• How to file an RTI in India
• State wise RTI fees
• Civil, family and property law hub
• AI RTI Drafter
• The RTI Playbook