Whose responsibility it is
The obligation sits with the property owner. City police commissionerates across India issue standing orders requiring landlords to report the particulars of anyone they let a property to, and non-compliance is an offence for the landlord. A tenant cannot file the verification on the landlord's behalf, though a cooperative tenant makes it a five-minute job.
The reason the requirement exists is straightforward: it gives the police a name and an identity document attached to a residential address. It is not a background check on you, it does not require you to be cleared before you move in, and it produces no certificate you need to keep.
What you will be asked for
A photo identity and address proof — Aadhaar, passport, voter ID or driving licence is normally accepted. Passport-size photographs. Your permanent address, and details of your employer or the institution you study at. A copy of the rent agreement. Contact details for a reference, usually a family member.
Foreign nationals are a separate track: landlords must additionally report them to the Foreigners Regional Registration Office through Form C, and that obligation applies regardless of the length of stay.
Doing it online
Most large city police forces now run this through their own citizen portals rather than at the station counter. Delhi Police, Mumbai Police, Bengaluru City Police, Hyderabad, Pune, Chennai and Noida each publish a tenant verification form on their site, and several state police departments have folded it into a single citizen-services app.
The flow is the same everywhere: the landlord creates an account, fills in the property and tenant details, uploads the documents and submits. The local station is notified and may follow up by phone or with a visit. Portals and their URLs change, so start from the official police site for your city rather than a third-party service offering to do it for a fee.
Where no online option exists, the form is filed at the police station with jurisdiction over the property.
What happens if it is skipped
In practice a great many tenancies never get verified, and nothing happens. The exposure is the landlord's: where a commissionerate has issued an order under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure — now Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 — disobeying it is a punishable offence, and landlords have been prosecuted for it.
The practical case for insisting on it is different. A landlord who has completed verification has formally acknowledged, on a police record, that you are the lawful occupant of that flat. In a dispute about possession that is a useful thing to exist.
This guide is general information about renting in India, not legal or tax advice. Stamp duty, registration charges, deposit caps and tax rates are set by individual states and revised regularly — confirm the current position for your state before you act on it.
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