Sale agreement (“protocole de vente”) is signed by parties at Cadaster
Agency: Departement des affaires foncieres, du cadastre et de la topographie
Both buyer and seller must go first to the Cadastre and sign a “protocol de vente” without mentioning the sale price. The Cadastre will make sure that the seller is the rightful owner and is entitled to sell this property.
Time and cost: 2 days, XAF 10,000
Evaluation of the property (“enquete parcellaire”)
Agency: Cadastre
The cadastre will conduct an “enquete parcellaire” to draw a ‘plan de bornage’ or delimitation of the land. The fees of cadastral work per square meter according to the 2019 financial law (Loi n 40-2018)
Time and cost: 21 days, XAF 231,072
- 100 FCFA per square meter (survey fee)
- 5% (additional tax on survey fee)
- 40,000 FCFA (survey report fee)
- 20,000 FCFA (cadastral report fee)
- 15,000 FCFA (reprography fee)
The notary checks for encumbrances on the property (land and building)
Agency: Property Registry (Conservation Fonciere)
The notary will check for encumbrances at the Conservation Fonciere and obtain a certificate “de non-inscription d’hypotheques”. The cost is fixed by the Art.94. Régime de la propriété foncière – Loi n°17-2000 du 30 décembre, 2000 (2000 CFA/year).
Time and cost: 2 days, XAF 20,000
Notary drafts the sale agreement and both parties sign
Agency: Notary
The parties can draw the sale agreement among themselves, but this sale agreement must be notarized. Therefore, most parties will retain the services of a notary to draw the sale agreement.
Time and cost: 1 day, XAF 2,064,402.33
- Notary fees on a sliding scale
- 0 to 5 000 000 7%
- 5 000 001 to 20 000 000 5%
- 20 000 001 to 50 000 000 3%
- 50 000 001 to 100 000 000 2%
- 100 000 001 and over 0.50%
- VAT: 18%
- Additional Tax on VAT: 5%
Register the sale agreement with the Property Registry
Agency: Property Registry (Conservation Fonciere)
The Registrar (Conservateur des Titres Foncier) will check the file and transmit it to one colleague to calculate if all costs are accurate. The Land registrar (conservateur des titres fonciers) will change the name on the property title (“transcription”) and issue a copy of the land title (“Titre Foncier”) to the Limited Liability Company and keep the technical file. Since the Doing Business case study assumption is about a transfer of property, there is no need for publication in the newspaper “La Semaine Africaine”.
First-time registrations only will be published as a legal announcement in the Semaine Africaine. According to the law, 17/200 du 30 December 2000, article 93 -94, only first-time registration (“immatriculation”) is subject to a publication as a legal notice in the newspaper( La Semaine Africaine). The Conservateur makes this announcement and there is a two months wait period to receive any disputes to the registration. After this period the registrar writes a certificate of contestation or no contestation and gives the relevant file to the president of the court in the area where the property is located. In case of no contestation, the president of said court orders the registration and the transcription of the rights of the buyer to the property. After publication, the land title is prepared and issued in the name of the Company.
Time and cost: 28 days, XAF 4,919,231.04
- 8% property value (registration fee)
- 5% of the registration fee
- 0.5% property value (transfer tax)
- 0.2% Frais de conservation
- Frais de depot 10,000 CFA
- Publication fees 10, 000 CFA
- Frais d’ordonnance 10, 000 CFA
- Transcription fees 5,000 CFA
- Copy fees 10,000 CFA
- Stamp duty 1300 CFA/page (maximum of 6 pages and the notary must do 4 copies of the sale agreement = 6 *4 *1300
