Completion Time Frame: 1 day
Completion Costs: 3% of property value
Points to Note:
The Law expressly states that all legal acts involving real estate transactions should be witnessed and notarized by a public notary. The parties can draft the sale agreement themselves and only ask the public notary to notarize the agreement. It is, however, common practice to ask the public notary to draft the sale contract. The Law imposes on the public notary, before notarizing the agreement, to perform all required investigations and due diligence.

According to Note Circulaire n° 01//CN du 08 mai 2002 du Président de l’Ordre suite à la délibération de l’Ordre des Notaires du 1er mai 2002 notary fees are 3% of property value.
By the terms of article 64 of decree n° 630/PR/MJ/96 of 22/11/1996 regarding the statute on notaries: “the memorandum of association or the transfer of immovable properties are obligatorily notarized. The authentification only concerns agreements under private signatures.
From the 07 January 2005 the registration fees as well as the value of properties have risen by the law N°03/PR/05 arising from the general budget of the State for 2005.

Step 2: Check the accuracy of the property’s surface and boundaries with the Cadastre

Completion Time Frame: 5 days
Completion Costs: no cost
Points to Note:
The public notary has to check with the cadastral services that the land area and boundaries as defined in the sale agreement are correct and not overstated (or understated). The public notary can either write to the concerned services or go by himself or send one of his employees. This is free of charge.

Step 3: Check with the Land Registry that the seller is providing a clear and non-encumbered title

Completion Time Frame: 5 days
Completion Costs: no cost
Points to Note:
The public notary has to check whether the seller of the property is the true owner with the Services des Domaines, which is the Land Registry in the Country. The public notary also has to check that the owner’s title is clear of mortgages, liens and other kind of security charge. The notary can either write to the director, or personally go to the land registry for due diligence.
Both the “Service des Cadastres” and the “Services des Domaines” are departments under the Finance Ministry. They are however located physically in different places.
Additional observations :
In case of doubt or contest, the inspectors of the cadastre can go to the property to do the delimiting or identification of it.
In Chad, there is a ‘Direction du cadastre’ and a ‘Direction du Domaine’ :
- the first one depends on Ministry of Organization of Territories of Urban Planning and Habitat ;
- whereas the second reports to the Ministry of Finance and Economy.

In addition, it is necessary to address a written request to the Registrar of real estate properties, for verifications relative to the property title.

Step 4: Obtain the notarized draft of the sale agreement

Completion Time Frame: 2 days
Completion Costs: no cost
Points to Note:
After accomplishing all due diligence checks, the public notary has fulfilled his legal obligations under the law and can now draft and notarize the sale agreement for the parties. The parties will need to pick up the final sale contract to register it with the land registry.
Additional observations:
As mentioned in procedure n° 1, the sale agreement must be drafted by the notary.

Step 5: Register the sale agreement with the “Service des Domaines”

Completion Time Frame: 1 day
Completion Costs: 15% property value (registration tax) + 4,000 FCFA stamp duty (1000FCFA per page, 4 pages)
Points to Note:
The parties should register the sale agreement at the Service des Domaines. This registration costs 15% of the property value (Registration Tax)
Property transfers are subject to stamp duty at a rate of 1000F per page.
One pays the stamp duty upon the signature of the sale agreement and the pronouncement of the adjudication.

Additional observations:
From 7 january 2005, date of entry into effect of law n° 03/PR/2005 arising from the general budget of the state for 2005, the article n° 444 of the general code of taxes relative to registration fees was modified as such:
- for properties with buildings, the agreement is registered at a rate of 15% property value.

The law n° 03/PR/05 arising from the general state budget for 2005 modified article 23 of the law n° 01/PR/2001 in augmenting the sale value per square meter of immovable properties going from 5000 to 40000 FCFA.

Step 6: Request the final transfer of property with the “Registre de la Conservation Foncière”.

Completion Time Frame: 30 days
Completion Costs: 4% of the property value (property transfer) + 40,000 (taxe de bornage) + 0.4% of property value (salaire du conservateur)
Points to Note:
With the notarized sale agreement and the certificate of registration, the parties are now eligible to file an application for the effective transfer of property to the buyer. The request is filed with the “Registre de la Conservation Foncière” where Land documentations are kept. The employee of the Registry conducts a final due diligence before making the final transfer of property.
Cost involve the following:
- 4% of the property value (property transfer)
- the 4‰ Salary of the “Conservateur”
- the ‘taxe de bornage ‘ is due according to adjudication or over the counter agreement based on the following rates :

Area Sum
Less than 299 m² 30
from 300 to 499 m² 35
from 500 to 799 m² 40
from 800 to 999 m² 45

Additional observations:
Article 2 of Decree n° 211/PR/MFM/86, mentioning distribution of revenues from transfers, transcriptions, registrations and entry of mortgages, fixes the fees for transfers and transcriptions at 4 per thousand of the value of the immovable.