Moroccan Court Sides with Resident in Condo Fee Dispute, Citing Lack of Mediation

In his complaint, the president of the syndicate indicated that the resident had not paid his contributions, despite a formal notice, asking the court to compel the latter to pay the amount due, as well as interest. The plaintiff attached to his request a copy of the constitutive general assembly, a copy of the formal notice, a copy of the property certificate, and an account statement.

In its decision, the court observed that according to the law, the mediation procedure is mandatory. However, the file contains no evidence that it was initiated. Therefore, we decide to reject the request and maintain the costs at the expense of its author."

Commenting on this decision, a researcher in Master’s of Real Estate Law and Urban Planning at the Faculty of Legal, Economic and Social Sciences of Ibn Zohr University in Agadir, explained that this payment order procedure is a special procedure aimed at recovering a debt based on evidence documents, without the need to rule on the merits of the dispute.

For this researcher in real estate law and urban planning, mediation is not a mandatory procedure for payment orders, unless it is provided for in the co-ownership regulations or the internal regulations of the co-owners’ union, or if it has been approved by the general assembly. According to him, this decision "suffers from a legal loophole, as it considered the payment order procedure as a judicial dispute requiring mediation, and imposed a condition that was not provided for by the co-ownership regime."