 A lot of real estate property in Morocco does not have title deeds, and is instead classified as ‘melkia’. Acquiring title deeds for a ‘melkia’ property can take a long time and may incur additional fees. It is better to purchase property with title deeds.
Registration is an administrative procedure that allows you to register your property in a special property ownership register, called a ‘livre foncier’ in French. Unless you register your property, it cannot be recognised as absolutely yours in law. Whether you are considering buying an apartment block, a detached house, a flat or a plot of land, registration in the ‘livre foncier’ is the only way you can indicate your legal ownership of the property and protect yourself against any future claim on the property or attempt at eviction. Fully compliant registration gives you the right to undisputed ownership of the title deeds as the entire previous ownership history of the property is annulled on registration and legally speaking your property becomes yours. This registration process also allows you to define the boundaries of your property, its geographical location, its extent, what it comprises and the topographical limits of the property, all of which will be conserved in a cadastral plan.
THE SIX STAGES OF REGISTERING REAL ESTATE PROPERTY
1- Request registration – examination of the request
2- Payment of registration duty.
3- Notice to the public – the registration is published and displayed publicly
4- Boundary marking – topographical procedures – public announcement –
investigation of the interested parties.
5- Notice of the setting of boundary markings – the notice is published with a final deadline for challenges to the boundaries being set.
6- REGISTRATION
Duty to be paid on dwellings to be used as living accommodation and on plots of land without buildings but with outline planning permission
The figures below only apply to houses and apartments for residential use for a period of over three years, or plots of land without buildings but with a commitment to build within seven years.
(% of the value of the property acquired, including VAT)
- Registration duty ; 2.5%
- Land Registry fees : 1% + MAD 150 (property certificate)
- Notary’s tax : 0.5%
- Notary’s fees 1%, minimum fee MAD 2,500 + 7% VAT
- Updating building particulars at the land registry (if necessary) : 0.5% + MAD 75
- Sundry expenses (stamp duty etc.) MAD 1,500 to 3,000 according to documentation involved.
- Publication expenses + fixed duty + copies : MAD600
- Duty payable on plot area: MAD45 per ‘are’ enclosed in urban zones, per hectare enclosed in rural zones.
- Surveyor’s fees: MAD 3000 approx.
- Other fees (stamp duty etc.) MAD 1,500 approx.
Duty to be paid on business premises and on plots of land without buildings and without any commitment to build
- Registration duty : 2.5%
- Land registry fees : 1%
- Notary’s tax : 0.5%
- Notary’s fees 1%, minimum fee MAD 2,500 + 7% VAT
- Other fees (stamp duty etc.) MAD 2,000 approx.
NB – foreigners cannot acquire agricultural land. In order to purchase agricultural land, a foreigner would have to alter the legal status of the land by obtaining a statement of change of use declaring the land to be for non-agricultural use (this procedure involves a commitment to complete a construction project whose size will depend on the area of the plot of land to be purchased, within a given deadline.)
All the costs, fees and duty payable on acquisition of real estate property are to be paid by the purchaser. The total expenses include rates, taxes, stamp duty, costs incurred to obtain official documents and forms and the notary’s fees.
The notary’s expenses are essentially a tax collected by the notary on behalf of the state. They are ‘change of ownership’ duties. The notary’s fees are added to this tax. The brackets into which the proportional (or fixed) rates are divided before tax are the remuneration for the notary’s work in drawing up legal documents (offer of sale, authenticated certificates, mortgage arrangements etc.)
The notary’s tax in the case of the sale of real estate property is set at 0.5% of the selling price. As regards the notary’s fees, these vary between 0.5% and 1% of the selling price, in accordance with the scale and the complexity of the transaction.
The notary can be considered as a guarantor of the parties’ legal rights or an impartial arbiter in examining the contracts presented to him, whose legal and moral status he guarantees in so far as his role is to record the wishes of the interested parties in unchallengeable documents, a contributor to the revenue of the state by means of the duty and taxes he collects or causes to be collected, and a figure whose role is also to prevent subsequent litigation, and thereby to avoid overloading the courts with cases.
His role is also to inform, in an impartial manner, the interested parties of the extent and importance of the commitments they wish to enter into. He also has a part to play in safety and prevention. Indeed, in so far as it is the notary who draws up the legal documents that bind the parties to an agreement, the notary is able to prevent litigation from arising between the parties. He oversees documentation and completes various legal and fiscal formalities needed in order to draw up legally-recognised contracts. The ultimate aim of all parties is to avoid any irregularity vis-à-vis current legislation.
The notary can be a conciliator and a mediator. If a disagreement should arise between the parties, the notary is in the best position to find an equable solution and so allow the parties settle the disagreement on friendly terms. There will be justification of all the notary’s costs and expenses; in practice the notary will ask you for an advance sufficient to cover all costs and expenses with a certain margin, to be paid on the day the property is placed under offer by means of a ‘promise de vente’. Several months later, the notary will send you an itemised list of all the costs and expenses incurred during the purchase of the property. Usually this list will be accompanied by a cheque to cover the difference between the advance and the actual costs and expenses of the transaction.
Apart from certain exceptional cases, the notary’s fees must be paid on the day contracts are exchanged. On this day, the buyer must also pay the price of the house minus the deposit paid when the house was placed under offer.
Above all, it must be stressed that a notary is a public official who has been authorised to receive contracts and other legal documents in order to authenticate them, to attach them to documents issued by public authorities to confirm the date and to hold them. Notaries are appointed in Morocco by a system of royal decree; know as ‘dahir royal’. Documents are drawn up in French.
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