Who does what: the commune, the urban agency, the wilaya, ANCFCC, the Order of Architects

The same house project passes through at least five administrations, and each answers only the questions that concern it. Asking the commune what the plan d’aménagement allows, or the urban agency whether your land is titled, loses weeks. This guide describes each actor’s role as it emerges from the general building regulation, the land registration dahir and the founding texts, and says at which point of the journey you meet it. It complements the guide on the legal framework.

Who intervenes when?

What does the commune do?

The commune is where you file. The general building regulation provides that the file is lodged at the commune’s registry against a numbered, dated receipt that serves as a certificate of admissibility (article 30). In communes of more than 50,000 inhabitants a one-stop shop for planning permits is set up; it is “the applicant’s single point of contact” and must inform on documents, circuits and the file’s progress (articles 10 and 12). The committees’ secretariat is provided by the commune’s planning services (article 25).

The commune is also the signatory. The building permit under article 40 of Law 12-90 is issued by the president of the communal council, who decides “in the light of the opinions and approvals” of the committee (article 35), must give reasons for any refusal (article 36) and notifies the decision by registered letter (article 40). The same president issues the occupancy permit and the certificate of conformity under article 55 of Law 12-90, after the final inspection of works (articles 41 and 42). Communal taxes linked to construction are paid to the commune before issuance, as the permit template annexed to the regulation recalls.

A practical consequence follows for anyone who lives far from the commune: the address you give at filing is where the registered letter will be sent, and the receipt’s number is what the one-stop shop will ask for when you call about the file’s progress. Keep both; they are your only handles on a procedure that otherwise runs without you.

What the commune does not do: it does not say what the plan d’aménagement allows on your parcel, that is the urban agency’s planning information note; it does not certify ownership, that is the land registry’s role; and it cannot override an unfavourable opinion from the urban agency.

What does the urban agency do?

The urban agencies are public bodies with legal personality and financial autonomy, created by the dahir-law of 10 September 1993 after the first three were set up in Casablanca, Fez and Agadir. According to the analysis by Hassan Chtouki, a jurist at an urban agency, they are charged with carrying out the studies for master plans, preparing the draft binding planning documents and conducting rehabilitation and restructuring operations; they now cover practically the whole territory.

For a private owner the urban agency intervenes twice. First through the planning information note, which it issues “to anyone who requests it” within a deadline not exceeding two working days (articles 6 and 7 of the general building regulation), stating the zone’s designation, prohibited uses, site coverage possibilities, setbacks and maximum height (article 8). Then in the review committee, of which it is a permanent member (article 21): article 35 provides that the permit may in no case be issued without the concurring opinion of its representative. That is the real lock of the procedure. The guide on planning documents explains what the agency puts in the note.

What do the prefecture, the province and the wilaya do?

The prefecture or province is a permanent member of the review committee (article 21) and of the inspection committee (article 42). In communes of 50,000 inhabitants or fewer, it hosts the prefectural or provincial planning committee that reviews files (article 15). Article 49 gives the governors a supervisory role: they ensure that communes, administrations and public bodies respect the issuance deadlines, urge laggards to comply within a period they set, and “take the measures required where the delay persists”. The prefecture is therefore where you turn when a file is asleep.

Law 66-12 strengthened this role. According to the analysis published by Le360 at its promulgation, site inspections are entrusted to judicial police officers and auxiliaries of the authority attached to the wilaya, the prefecture and the administration, with power to order the immediate stop of a site in breach. The wilaya, the regional tier headed by a wali, coordinates the regional committees, notably on planning derogations.

What does the land registry do?

The Agence nationale de la conservation foncière, du cadastre et de la cartographie acts through its land registrars, appointed for each prefecture or province and charged “with keeping the land register” and “with carrying out the formalities and procedures prescribed for land registration” (article 9 of the dahir of 12 August 1913). The registrar receives registration applications, directs boundary surveys, records oppositions, registers or refers to the court, establishes the land title (article 52) and issues its duplicate to the owner (article 58). He also issues, to anyone who asks, a statement of the inscriptions on a title (article 61), commonly called the certificate of ownership.

After registration, he is still the one who inscribes every sale, mortgage or succession, and article 66 of the dahir recalls that a real right over a registered property exists against third parties only from that inscription. The registrar is personally liable for omissions or irregularities (article 97). The guide Land title vs melkia details the procedure.

What does the National Order of Architects do?

Created by Law 016-89 on the practice of the architectural profession, the Ordre national des architectes keeps the register of practitioners authorised to practise and oversees professional ethics. The general building regulation assumes its involvement at several stages: plans are drawn by the project’s designer, who may attend the committee to present them (article 29), and where an architect directed the works, the final inspection may be replaced by his certificate of conformity (article 45). The completion declaration template has a field for the architect’s name “where recourse to this professional is compulsory”.

The Order also matters when things go wrong. Professional ethics, fee disputes and complaints about a registered architect’s conduct are addressed to its regional councils before any court, and a certificate of registration dated within the year is what public clients ask for when they commission an architect; private clients can ask for the same document.

Before signing a contract, check the architect’s entry in the Order’s register; a plan signed by an unregistered person is not admissible where the law requires an architect. The cases in which one is compulsory are covered in the guide on Law 016-89. Built Morocco recommends no practitioner.

Who are the opinion-giving services?

For large projects the permanent members are joined by representatives of the civil protection directorate, the services responsible for telecommunications and the bodies managing the various networks (article 21). Non-permanent members are limited to the administrations whose opinion or approval is required by law (article 23). Two rules protect the applicant: these bodies “are required to decide, within their competence, within the set deadlines or, at the latest, during the meeting” (article 27), and their opinions “must in no way be conditioned on prior payment of fees for services” (article 28).

For a plot-division request, the committee also includes a representative of the land registry (article 22). Final connections to networks remain subject to each operator’s authorisation, as the permit template recalls.

And the courts?

Two courts may enter a project. The court of first instance of the property’s location receives registration applications burdened by oppositions that have not been lifted (article 32 of the 1913 dahir); a reporting judge prepares the case and the court rules on the existence and extent of the claimed rights (articles 34 and 37). The administrative court, under Law 41-90, hears appeals for annulment against decisions of administrative authorities, for instance a permit refusal the applicant considers unfounded, within sixty days of notification, after an optional prior appeal to the authority that took the decision. The guide on permit refusals details these routes.