Casablanca Launches Crackdown on Real Estate Fraud to Protect Homebuyers

As part of this operation, the competent authorities will verify all the documents for the creation of the companies, as well as the property titles, building permits and authorizations for temporary occupation of public property, according to sources at Hespress, stating that these control actions will be carried out in close collaboration with the local authorities and the law enforcement agents.

The operation was launched following complaints of fraud orchestrated by these companies through their sales offices. In their complaints addressed to the Wali and the central administration, the housing applicants denounce in particular the sudden halt of real estate projects, the cancellation of reservations, and the non-respect of the delivery deadlines of real estate properties by certain small real estate developers and construction companies.

Rather than signing notarized contracts with their clients, these real estate developers demand financial advances from them, sometimes exceeding a third of the total price of the real estate properties, in order, they claim, to start the construction work on the buildings, as part of "off-plan sale" (VEFA) contracts. As a result, they find themselves with their backs to the wall when it comes time to deliver the buildings.

It is to prevent these real estate scams that several local authorities have taken a series of measures, including the obligation for sales offices to obtain prior authorizations from the local authorities, and the verification of documents related to real estate projects and sales processes, particularly those relating to land belonging to third parties.