Decree N° 79 -017 of 13 january 1979 relating to private real property transactions.

THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC,

Mindful of the constitution of 2 june 1979, as amended by law N° 75 – 1 of May 1975 ;

Mindful of ordinary N° 74 – 1 of 6 july 1974 to establich rules government land tenure

HEREBY DECREE AS FOLLOWS

CHAPTER ONE : GENERAL PROVISIONS

1. The sale, free assignment of exchange of real property between individuals shall, within the meaning of this decree, constitute a private property transaction.
CHAPTER II : PROCEDURE

2. (1) Any person desiring to transfer his real property shall apply to the appropriate surveys service in whose area the real property fall for the demarcation of the parcel in the question.

(2) The application shall contain :

– the full names of the owner ;

– the number of the land certificate ;

-the area of the parcel and, where applicable the number of the plot and the name of the person acquiring the plot.

(3) The surveys service shall, free of charge, place the property beacons, prepare the cadastral report and draw the plans. The report shall be signed the owner.

(4) The stamped and endosed plans the demarcation report shall be handed ti the applicant for the procedure to be continued.

The surveys service shall bring its documents up to date.

(5) seller and purchaser shall jointly submit to the competent notary a file comprising the following documents :

a) the plan and demarcation report ;

b) the town – lanning certificate ;

c) the copy of the land certificate ;

d) a certificate attesting that the state has waived the right of preemption provided for in Article 10 of Ordinance N° 74- 1 of 6 jully 1974 in the case where the owner is of foreign nationality.

6. In the event of a complete transfer of the real property, the owner shall be exemppted from producting the documents provided for in Article 5 (a) above.

7. (1) The notary must inform the purchase of the charge and easements which apply to the real property under pain of assuming personal responsability for them, they shall be mentioned in the deed.

(2) The said deed shall be lodged and a receipt given in exchange within the 8 days followings its registration by the lands service in whose area the real property falls, the deed shall be accompanaied by the documents referred to in Article 5 ;

(3) It shall be entered in a special register according to the chronogical order of arrival.

This register whose pages shall be number and initialled shall indicate/show :

– the serial number ;

– the date and time of reception of the file ;

– the attesting notary ;

– the nature name of the owner ;

– the full name of the person acquiring the real property ;

– the number of the land certificate ;

– the area of the parcel in question and, where necessary, the number of the plot.

8. The lands service shall verify the validity of the documents in the file. It dhall established the land certificate or return the to the notary.

9. Land registers and cadastral documents shall be finally brought up to date by the competent services before the certificates are handed over to their owners.

10. A copy of the plan bearing the number of the new land certificate and the name of the person acquiring the property shall be forwarded to the surveys service.

CHAPTER III : FINAL PROVISIONS

11. Deeds of real property transactions not yet registered on the date when this decree takes effect hall be subject to the procedure provided for by this decree.

11. This decree shall be registered and published in the Official Gazette in french and English.

Yaounde, 13 january 1979

AHMADOU AHIDJO

President of the Republic