Real Property and Landlord-Tenant: Registration and the Two Lease Regimes
This domain combines the land-registration system with the two lease regimes. The exam tests whether you can say who holds an opposable right and which rent law governs.
Real rights and registration
- Ownership, usufruct, use, servitude and mortgage over immovables arise or transfer by contract and become opposable through registration at the Conservation foncière.
- Priority among competing claimants follows the date of registration, not the date of the deed.
- Possession may ground a claim, but prescriptive acquisition of immovables and boundary actions follow specific rules.
Leases
- Pre-1992 leases remain under a protected regime: rent increases follow statutory schedules, and eviction is confined to enumerated grounds such as non-payment, personal occupation or demolition.
- Post-1992 leases are governed by freedom of contract under Law No. 159 of 1992: written lease, agreed term and rent, and statutory notice rules.
- Commercial leases carry goodwill protection (droit au bail), which has a money value on eviction.
Worked example
A tenant has held a shop since 1985. The landlord serves notice to vacate and demands market rent. Neither request succeeds as framed: the tenant holds a protected lease, any increase must follow the statutory schedule, and eviction needs a ground listed by law - not a mere wish to redevelop.
Traps
Confusing a valid contract between the parties with opposability to third parties; ignoring registration of a mortgage; applying the 1992 law to an old lease; treating a family arrangement as a lease; overlooking the goodwill value in a commercial lease.