Explainer: What Morocco’s new proxy rules mean for property owners

Morocco has introduced a national registry for real estate powers of attorney, requiring these documents to be recorded before they can be used in property transactions. The reform aims to close a loophole that has been exploited in fraud cases involving fake or misused authorisations.

The biggest impact will likely be felt by the Moroccan diaspora who sell or manage homes remotely and rely on relatives or representatives in Morocco to handle paperwork. 

Under the new rules, a power of attorney issued abroad must also go through the registration process before it can be accepted for a real estate deal.The reason behind the reform is the long-running problem of property fraud linked to forged documents. 

According to Chouaib Lamsahle, lawyer at the Casablanca Bar Association, courts have dealt with cases involving forged powers of attorney, including instances where documents were issued in the names of deceased persons and later used to transfer properties to third parties. In some cases, the fraud was only discovered years later, making it difficult for owners to recover their property rights.

The new registry is designed to strengthen property security by allowing notaries and legal professionals to verify whether a mandate is genuine, who issued it and whether it is still valid. Transactions completed outside this framework could be considered null and void.

The system itself is meant to simplify verification, but the transition period requires professionals to adjust, especially when dealing with documents prepared before the reform came into force.

Lamsahle said that the law doesn’t address the issue of what happens to existing powers of attorney. But under the general legal principle that laws do not apply retroactively, powers of attorney signed before the registry entered into force should remain legally valid.

Lamsahle explained that while older powers of attorney may still be valid in principle, people trying to use them in future property transactions could face difficulties. 

Notaries and adouls may refuse to process property deals using powers of attorney that are not registered in the new database and owners who hold older powers of attorney may need to update them. This could mean issuing a new power of attorney and registering it in the registry maintained by the court of appeal covering the area where the property is located.

For buyers, the new system makes it easier to confirm that the person signing a deal is genuinely authorised to act for the property owner. For Moroccans abroad, it also means a representative can no longer sell a property using a power of attorney that has not been checked through the registry.