The legal framework for building in Morocco: laws 12-90, 25-90, 66-12 and 016-89

Before you draw a plan, and before you buy a plot, you need to know which text governs what. Most of the blockages private owners run into start there: asking the commune for something only the urban agency can provide, assuming a notarial deed under customary law equals a title, or discovering after the purchase that the parcel cannot be built on. This guide presents the texts that matter, what each one regulates, and where to read the official version. It is the base layer for the other guides in the Building in Morocco pillar.

Which texts govern building in Morocco?

The table places each text. Dates are those of the promulgating dahirs as they appear in the preamble of the 2013 general building regulation and in the ANCFCC compendium of land registration texts.

Two older texts still matter: the dahir of 25 June 1960 on the development of rural settlements, which governs permits outside urban perimeters, and the dahir-law of 10 September 1993 creating the urban agencies, which explains why those bodies hold a decisive say over every file.

What does Law 12-90 regulate?

Law 12-90 organises planning: the schéma directeur d’aménagement urbain (urban master plan) sets long-term orientations, and the plan d’aménagement (development plan), a binding document, assigns land use zone by zone and fixes building rules. The maximum height, setbacks, site coverage ratio and prohibited uses are read in the plan d’aménagement, or in the plan de zonage that precedes it. The guide on planning documents explains how to read them.

The same law makes the building permit compulsory in article 40 and the occupancy permit in article 55. The 2013 general building regulation restates that the building permit is issued by the president of the communal council, and that no permit may be issued without the concurring opinion of the urban agency’s representative. The commune signs; the urban agency holds a veto.

Article 59 refers the form and conditions for issuing permits to a general building regulation. Morocco waited until 2013 for one: before that, each commune applied its own practice.

What does Law 25-90 regulate?

As soon as a piece of land is divided to be built on, you leave Law 12-90 for Law 25-90. Three permits follow from it: the subdivision permit (autorisation de lotir), the housing-group permit, and the plot-division permit (autorisation de morceler). The general building regulation adds a telling detail: the committee that reviews a plot-division request includes, beyond its usual members, a representative of the land registry, which shows how closely land division and land status are tied.

For a private buyer the question arises at purchase: buying a plot in a subdivision that has been formally accepted by the commune (lotissement réceptionné, meaning the servicing works were handed over) changes the procedure for the future permit. The annexes to the general building regulation classify individual houses in an accepted subdivision as “small projects”, with a faster review, and the same houses outside one, above a certain height, as “large projects”.

What did Law 66-12 change?

Adopted in 2016 after several collapses of buildings under construction, Law 66-12 amends and supplements Laws 12-90 and 25-90. Its purpose is the control and punishment of planning and building offences. According to the analysis published by Le360 at the time of its publication in the Official Bulletin, it entrusts inspections to judicial police officers or auxiliaries of the authority, allows a site to be stopped immediately once an offence is recorded, requires a site logbook, and demands that offences be reported within 48 hours on pain of complicity. Sanctions were raised, with custodial sentences for repeat offences.

It also created tools private owners need: a repair permit for works that do not require an occupancy permit, a demolition permit, and a regularisation procedure for buildings erected without authorisation, subject to the agreement of the urban agency and the commune president. Decree 2-18-577 of 2019, which updated the general building regulation, exists precisely to set the form and conditions of these new permits.

What does Law 016-89 say about using an architect?

Law 016-89 organises the architectural profession and creates the Ordre national des architectes, which keeps the register of practitioners entitled to practise. For a client, its practical consequence is simple: in the cases the law provides, the plans of a project subject to a permit must be drawn and signed by a registered architect. The general building regulation assumes this at every stage: the project’s designer may attend the review committee to present the file, and where an architect directed the works, the final inspection can be replaced by that architect’s certificate of conformity.

The surface thresholds and the exceptions, notably in rural areas, are covered in the guide on when an architect is compulsory. This guide does not reproduce them: they must be read in the text in force.

Where are the procedures and timelines written?

The general building regulation approved by decree 2-13-424 of 24 May 2013 is the text every owner should read at least once. It creates a one-stop shop for planning permits (guichet unique) in communes of more than 50,000 inhabitants and prefectural or provincial committees elsewhere; it distinguishes a “large projects” procedure from a “small projects” procedure; it fixes timelines in working days at each stage; it obliges the commune president to give reasons for any refusal; it describes the occupancy permit and the final inspection of works; and it annexes the official templates for the planning information note, the application, the committee minutes and the permit decision.

This regulation was updated by decree 2-18-577 of 12 June 2019, then supplemented by two joint ministerial orders published in Official Bulletin 6874 of 16 April 2020: order 337.20, which lists the documents required for each type of application, and order 338.20, which sets the rules for fully electronic filing, review and issuance. The latter is the regulatory basis of the national digital platform, Rokhas.

The step-by-step procedure is the subject of the guide on the building permit.

And the status of the land, who regulates it?

A plot can be buildable under the plan d’aménagement and still impossible to build on legally, because its land status does not establish ownership. The land title regime is organised by the dahir of 12 August 1913, whose first article states that registration produces a title that cancels all previous titles and purges all rights not mentioned in it, and whose article 62 declares the land title final and unassailable. Law 14-07 of 2011 amended and supplemented this text, notably the opposition procedure and compulsory registration by zones.

The difference between a titled plot and one held under a notarial deed of customary law, and its consequences for a building project, are covered in the guide Land title vs melkia.

Where can you read these texts in their official version?

Laws and decrees appear in the Bulletin officiel of the Kingdom. The general edition is in Arabic; an official translation edition exists in French, sometimes a few weeks later. The 2013 general building regulation, for instance, appeared in Arabic in Bulletin 6155 of 27 May 2013 and in French in Bulletin 6174 of 1 August 2013. Where interpretation is in doubt, the Arabic text prevails. No official English translation exists for any of these texts; the English terms used on this site are explanations, and the French and Arabic names are given so you can find the originals.

Two compilations are useful. The compendium of land registration texts published by ANCFCC gives the 1913 dahir in consolidated form, article by article, with the history of amendments in footnotes. For planning, the urban agencies publish the general building regulation and its annexes. In every case, note the date of the version you consult: several of these texts have been amended since 2016.