Morocco’s Anti-Land Spoliation Law Stalls Without Implementation Measures

Morocco is not about to put an end to real estate dispossessions. The implementing texts of the anti-land spoliation law are still not ready, notes L’Économiste. Yet the entry into force of the law is subject to the publication of the necessary regulatory texts and the implementation of the registers of mandates and that of the real estate civil companies.

In 2015, King Mohammed VI had instructed the Minister of Justice to find a solution to real estate dispossessions. These royal instructions followed the complaints of many victims. This is how Law 31-18 on the registration of powers of attorney and real estate civil companies in dedicated electronic registers was voted. This law establishes a national electronic register of mandates relating to real rights.

It aims to reform certain provisions of the code of obligations and contracts, in particular through the establishment of a national register of powers of attorney. Mandates allowing third parties to modify the ownership of a building or the constitution of other real rights, their transmission or their forfeiture are concerned by this device. In other words, any formality relating to a transfer of real estate ownership is subject to the registration of these mandates in the register of powers of attorney. The latter will only have legal effect from the date of this registration.

Mandates established abroad must also be registered in the same register or in the one held by the court of first instance of Rabat or the place where the real estate property is located. The only thing missing is an implementing decree to define the organizational arrangements of this register. This decree will have to define the modalities relating to the operation of the device, the method of collecting and consulting the data, their security, compliance with the provisions on personal data; determine whether there will be a transitional period for the management of powers of attorney established before the publication of the law, etc.