Law N°.76/25 of 14 December 1976 to establish regulations governing cadastral surveys and Records
The National Assembly has deliberated and adopted the president of the Republic hereby enacts the law set out below:
Section 1. – A general and exact census shall be taken of lands throughout the Republic for the purpose of establishing cadastral survey records of all landed properties.
Section 2. – The preparation of cadastral records based on parcel surveys must inlove the settlement of boundaries of both public and private properties. Such boundary settlement necessitates the demarcation of boundaries and the preparation of a numbered cadastral plan.
Section 3.-The cadastral survey operations shall be:
– To establish basic topographical maps ;
– To demarcate property, determine its area and define the use classification and value of each piece of developed and undeveloped property ;
– To prepare plans showing individual parcels at the scales of 1/500, 1/1000, 1/2000 and 1/5000 and block plans at scales of 1/5000 and 1/10,000 ;
– To establish cadastral records including registers and matrices.
Section 4. – The cadastral records of local councils shall be prepared either from existing topographic documents or by means of a general survey carried out in accordance with the prescribed technical instructions and with reference to a triangulation connected to the national geodetic network.
Section 5.- The cost of establishing the cadastral surveys and records shall be borne by the state.
Section 6.- The delimitation of properties must be done in the presence of an administrative commission. The composition of the commission and the terms and conditions of its functioning shall be determined by decree.
Section 7.- The Boundary commission shall be responsible for :
– Supplying the official responsible for the operations with any information or indications likely to be of assistance, in the search for and the recognition of landowners and property boundaries ;
– Recording if need be the agreement of the parties concerning their property boundaries, and settling any disagreements that may arise ;
– Provisionally demarcating disputed boundaries in cases where an amicable settlement has not been possible.
Section 8.- The public shall be informed at least two months in advance of the date for starting work on the cadastral survey of a local council area through press and radio announcements and by public notices posted in the administrative and council offices.
Section 9.- Landowners customary land holders farmers and other holders of property interests or their duly authorized representatives must be present on their land when on the spot checks or investigations are carried out so that they may formulate any remarks they have to make. They shall be bound:
– (a) to declare every property that they hold ;
– (b) to allow the officials and the members of the commission responsible for the operation to have access to their propertied including gardens, yards and enclosures adjacent to dwellings ;
– (c) to comply with any summons to be present on their lands or at the surveys office, to supply all the information asked of them and to produce where necessary any title documents in their possession ;
– (d) to mark out the boundaries of their properties with
permanent boundary marks.
Section 10.- The supply and placing of beacons and, where applicable the cost of clearing the boundaries shall be at the charge of the owners or of the local communities as the case may be.
Section 11.- Upon the completion of the field work in a local council area, the following documents shall be prepared on the basis of the results obtained :
– An official report on the delimited of the whole local council area ;
– Cadastral plans showing the location of properties;
– A cadastral register in which properties are listed in
topographical order ;
– A cadastral matrice which lists the properties owned by each landowner in the local council area together with their classification and assessed value.
Section 12.- (1) The new cadastral plans and the cadastral register shall be deposited for two months at the surveys office so that landowners may inspect them and formulate any remarks concerning them.
(2) Following this deposit and in view of the remarks made, any errors that may have occurred in the cadastral documents shall be corrected.
Section 13. – (1) On the expiry of the period of deposit referred to in section 12 above and after the correction of any error, the new documents shall, except for any parts in dispute, be deemed to be in conformity with the actual situation of the properties listed.
(2) The procedure for the approval of the results of the survey operations shall be determined by decree.
PART II CADASTRAL RECORDS
Section 14.- The maintenance of cadastral records includes all the operations required to keep the cadastral records up to date. It shall be affected each year.
Section 15.- Landowners, possessors, usufructuaries, farmers and other holders of real property rights shall be bound to comply with summonses from the surveys official responsible for the maintenance of cadastral records and to provide him with all the information needed to keep his records up to date.
Section 16.- (1) In all authenticated deeds court decisions and administrative enactments, real properties shall be identified in the terms used in the cadastral records.
(2) If the deed or the court ruling concerns a part of the property or several properties, such as sub divisions, layouts partition, joint ownerships or amalgamations, the demarcation of the part concerned and the placing of boundary marks shall precede the establishment of the deed. The deed or the court ruling shall be drawn up in keeping with the survey plan approved by the surveys office.
Section 17.- In order to enable the cadastral documents to be kept up to date, and to ensure concordance between the real estate index and the cadastral records a copy of the deeds or enactments referred to in section 16 above must be forwarded to the competent surveys service by the persons who drew them or who signed them, within 30 days of their registration for authenticated deeds and court decisions, or of their signature for administrative enactments.
Section 18.- The surveys Department shall be authorized as a matter of routine and for the purpose of keeping the documents for which it is responsible up to date to record changes of any kind not affecting the legal status of real properties.
Section 19.- Cadastral survey plans, property demarcations and plan descriptions shall be drawn up by sworn surveys officials or by practicing licended surveyors approved by the surveys Department. such licended surveyors must submit their survey documents to the surveys Department for prior checking and approval.
Section 20.- copies of cadastral records( survey plans, matrices , plan descriptions and prints of survey plans) shall be issued exclusively by the surveys administration against payment of fees as fixed by the Finance Law.
Section 21.-(1) surveys official shall be empowered to carry out any land surveying duties, be they measuring or observation for the state or local council on private lands, national landsor state lands.
(2) Any damages caused to property during such operations shall be compensated for in accordance with the previsions of articles 8 et seq. of ordinance N°74/3 of july 1974 concerning expropriation for a public purpose and the terms and conditions of compensation.
Section 22.- pursuant to the provisions of section 21 above, the surveys services may set up survey marks on any property. Such marks may be temporary or permanent if the property owner shall be informed thereof.
Section 23.- When some parts of buildings constitute permanent triangulation points, the owners shall be informed threreof. The latter may not make alterations to such points without giving notice to the surveys administration at least two months in advance. The same shall apply in the case of bench marks affixed to the walls of buildings.
PART III THE COORDINATION AND CENTRALIZATION OF GEODETIC TOPOGRAPHIC TOPOMETRIC AND PHOTOGRAMMETRIC SURVEYING
Section 24.- (1) the originals of the records of all geodetic work, topographical surveys at all scales and the negatives of vertical pictures of any built-up or rural areas executed on behalf of the state local communities , public establishments and Para-public corporations must be deposited with the surveys Department for examination and preservation.
(2) When received, these documents shall become the property of the state, and the surveys administration alone shall be authorized to re produce them for distribution or sale witout the contractor having any claim for additional compensation.
Section 25.- geodetic work, topographical and topometric surveys at any scale and all aerial photographs shall be submitted to the surveys Department for inspection and checking before their acceptance and settlement. The originals of field documents computation sheets and plans shall be deposited with the surveys Department services for checking.
If it is discovered during checking that the closures are not in conformity with the technical instructions in force the work shall be done over again at the contractor’s expense.
PART IV PENAL PROVISIONS
Section 26.- Subject to the provisions of sections 186 and 319 of the penal Code concerning resistance to works and the removal and the destruction of boundary marks, any other infringement of the provisions of the present law shall be punished with imprisonment of from five days to six months or with a fine of from 5,000 to 500,000 francs or with both such imprisonment and fine.
Section 27.-
(1) Infringement of the provisions of the present Law shall be recorded jointly by sworn surveys officials and by officers or agents of the judicial police.
(2) The reports of their investigations, which shall be deemed authoritative until proven otherwise, shall be forwarded to the state counsel of the place where the infringement was committed.
PART V MISCELLANEOUS AND TRANSITIONAL PROVISIONS
Section 28.- Before assuming duty, Surveys officials shall take the oath before the court of first instance in their area of residence. This oath shall not be taken again in the event of the official’s transfer. Surveys officials shall be personally responsible for their work. Unless specially so authorized by their immediate head, they shall not:
– Issue copies of the whole or part of documents representing work carried out in the execution of their duties ;
– Give any information concerning documents under their care ;
– However, the surveys Department may issue copies extracts or documents upon the request of lawful claimants or the government or the courts.
Section 29.- contractors who have in the past carried out topographic and topometric surveys or taken aerial photographs for the state,
local communities public establishments or Para public corporations must deposit them with the competent provisional surveys service within six months from the date of publication of this law.
Section 30.- Decree shall fix as and where necessary, the terms and conditions of the practical application of this Law.
Section 31.- This law shall be registered, published according to the procedure of urgency and inserted in the official Gazette in French and English.
AHMADOU AHIDJO
President of the Republic
