The Netherlands track down assets in Morocco, but deem cooperation “not always optimal”

When a municipality has sufficiently concrete indications, it can request a search for a house, plot of land or other property owned in Morocco. The consequences can be serious, since a house in Morocco can lead to the repayment of several years of benefits.

The official guide Handreiking inkomen en vermogen in het buitenland V2026 details the procedure. The municipality refers the case to the Internationaal Bureau Fraude-informatie (IBF), a UWV service responsible for coordinating cross-border investigations.

The case file must be sufficiently precise. Officials are notably asked to provide a copy of the Moroccan passport, the CIN number, the presumed address of the property, the relevant neighborhood and, if possible, the land title or a detailed itinerary.

On Bladi.net : article 122926

The system is based on the social security agreements concluded between the two countries and on Article 30A of the administrative agreement between Morocco and the Netherlands, amended in 2016. Searches are conducted through an ad hoc committee bringing together the competent authorities, the social affairs attaché at the Dutch embassy in Rabat, the Moroccan Cadastre and the Ministry of the Interior.

The Cadastre does not, however, always make it possible to reach a definitive conclusion. According to the guide, the registration and recording of real estate transactions are not mandatory there. A dwelling may therefore remain registered in the name of the state or a developer, while registration remains less widespread in certain rural areas.

Investigations dependent on the Moroccan authorities

Local authorities then play a decisive role. Through the Ministry of the Interior, they may be asked to determine whether a person owns property and to locate it precisely.

Even the address can complicate the investigation. The document notes that the information held by Dutch municipalities is sometimes incomplete or unreliable: some streets or villages have no name, some houses have no number and numbering systems may change.

Once the property has been located, the Committee can contact the Land Registry. A cadastral number or GPS coordinates make it possible to obtain current or historical data. An appraisal may also be entrusted to an accredited professional selected by the embassy, with the authorization of the beneficiary concerned.

These checks supplement the other clues used by municipalities: repeated stays at the same address in Morocco may already draw their attention.

On Bladi.net : article 122972

The guide nevertheless acknowledges that it is difficult to announce how long an investigation in Morocco will take or when the results will be forwarded. It directly attributes this to the dependence on the Moroccan authorities: despite Dutch efforts to maintain cooperation, their cooperation is “not always optimal.”

The document therefore does not describe a systematic refusal by Morocco. On the contrary, it sets out an institutional mechanism involving the embassy, the Ministry of the Interior, the Cadastre and local authorities. But it acknowledges that the effectiveness and speed of tracking down assets remain largely dependent on the responses obtained locally.