Moroccan Notaries’ Strike Threatens to Halt Weddings and Real Estate Deals

The announcement of this strike comes following the statements of the Minister of Justice, Abdelatif Ouahbi, who during an oral question session in the House of Advisors on Tuesday, indicated that the government and the competent authorities have not validated his proposal to allow notaries to retain their right to receive the deposits of the contracting parties, considering that "the work of notaries is limited to the reception and presentation of testimonies before a judge of the documentation."

According to the National Order of Notaries, this refusal would be the work of "external pressure groups to the Ministry of Justice who form pockets of resistance and seek to prevent this." In a statement published on Wednesday, the Order denounces the non-consideration of the recommendations of the National Charter for the Reform of the Judicial System, which call for the modernization of the notary profession and the revision of the deposits of clients of the judicial and legal professions, with a view to better protection and security.

Ouahbi had announced two years ago that his department recognized the right of notaries to receive deposits of money in the context of real estate transactions, specifying that the new draft law on the organization of the notary profession, submitted to the General Secretariat of the Government, "includes new provisions to solve this problem."