Home Country of Origin Information Responses to Information Requests Responses to Information Requests Responses to Information Requests (RIR) are research reports on country conditions. They are requested by IRB decision makers. The database contains a seven-year archive of English and French RIR. Earlier RIR may be found on the European Country of Origin Information Network website. Please note that some RIR have attachments which are not electronically accessible here. To obtain a copy of an attachment, please e-mail us. Related Links • Advanced search help 23 July 2020 HTI200285.FE Haiti: Requirements and procedures for transferring land, including when the owner lives abroad; whether criminals or criminal gangs have been involved in the illegal acquisition of land, including by force or through fraudulent documents; whether the affected persons have legal means to recover their land (2017–July 2020) Research Directorate, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada 1. Background In a presentation prepared for the US Agency for International Development (USAID) as part of a training session on the land tenure and property rights system in Haiti held in 2014 (US [2014b]), Véronique Dorner, member of the Laboratoire d’anthropologie juridique de l’Université de Paris 1 (US [2014a]), indicated that there are three types of land status in Haiti: State land within the Public Domain, State land within the Private Domain, and private property (Dorner 1 Oct. 2014, 3). Articles 1, 2 and 3 of the Decree of 22 September 1964, relating to rent setting and the leasing of State land within the Private Domain, provide the following: [translation] Article 1. The National Domain is divided into State land within the Public Domain and State land within the Private Domain. Article 2. The Public Domain is inalienable and imprescriptible. It consists of all things that, without belonging to anyone, are accessible to the general public for collective use. It consists of paths, roads, streets, markets and public squares, rivers, lakes and ponds, shores, ports and harbours, islands or islets, gates, walls, ditches, ramparts of places of war and fortresses, entryways, canals, historical monuments and memorials and all portions of the territory that are not subject to private appropriation or prescription. Access to the Private Domain is subject to special laws and special police regulations. Changes of location that may transform parts of the Public Domain must be authorized by statute. Article. 3. The Private Domain is imprescriptible. It includes: 1. Buildings and other movable or immovable property accessible or reserved for the service of the government and the various public administration bodies; 2. All vacant or unowned property; 3. Movable or immovable property that reverts to the State in the absence of heirs within the degree of succession or designated legatees or subsequent [or surviving spouses (Haiti 1964a)]; 4. Silts; 5. Parts of the Public Domain that, by change of location, enter into the State’s Private Domain; 6. Lastly, Property that the State owns through acquisition, exchange or other means. (Haiti 1964b) In Volume 2 of the Manual of Haitian Land Transactions, which aims to [Working Group English Version] “help land owners, state farmers, developers, renters, future owners and NGO’s anticipate and prevent complications resulting from the purchase of properties in order to avoid land conflicts,” the Haiti Property Law Working Group [1] notes that “State land within the Private Domain can be leased (rental, tenant farming) by the General Tax Directorate (DGI) under the conditions prescribed by the Decree of September 22, 1964” (Working Group 1 Dec. 2014, 8, 35). Similarly, Véronique Dorner states that it is possible for an individual to have access to State land within the Private Domain through leasing or if the State gives land to an individual (Dorner 1 Oct. 2014, 7). Dorner adds that private land may be transferred to the State’s Private Domain when it is considered [translation] “vacant and without an owner” or by public utility decree (Dorner 1 Oct. 2014, 5). Furthermore, Volume 1 of the Haiti Land Transaction Manual states that [Working Group English Version] “[p]roperty may be expropriated by the State for public utility purposes” (Working Group 26 June 2012, 17). The national summary of the results of the 2008/2009 general agriculture census identifies the main legal statuses of land in Haiti as follows: [translation] Title/purchase: Land purchased with formal division for which the operator has individual title. Title/inheritance: Inherited land with formal division for which the operator has individual title. Minor/shared: Inherited land that is parcelled out without any formal agreement between the persons concerned. Minor/collective: Inherited land that is not parcelled out (undivided land). Each heir concerned has the right to exploit the land in question. Church land: Land bequeathed by a natural or legal person to a religious organization. State: Land used for agriculture that is State property. This type of land is overseen by the services of the DGI or entrusted to other State organizations. Rural family property: Plot of land made available by the State to individuals in communities solely for development purposes (agricultural colonies). Undeclared: This classification is used when the operator is unable to specify the legal status of the land they are using. This classification shall only be used as a last resort after clarification by the operator or other members of the household. (Haiti Oct. 2012, 201) Véronique Dorner’s presentation shows that lands to which the owner initially held title [translation] “shift into ‘informal’ property [that no longer corresponds to any of the existing property titles]” when there are, for example, informal sales, unofficially shared inheritances or a contested sale of inherited land (Dorner 1 Oct. 2014, 9). Dorner notes that, consequently, [translation] “in urban and rural areas alike, quite a number of people who consider themselves to be owners are unable to prove their rights to the plot they occupy” (Dorner 1 Oct. 2014, 9). With regard to the State’s Private Domain, Dorner adds that it is possible that [translation] “several generations of farmers, who ceased paying [rights] long ago [remain] persuaded that they are the owners” (Dorner 1 Oct. 2014, 10). Similarly, in an article on Haiti’s property situation, Geert van Vliet, a researcher affiliated with the Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement, CIRAD) in France, and his coauthors highlight the [translation] “informal regulations” consisting in traditions and customs that regulate land access when property transactions do not take place before a notary, [translation] “which does not exclude ‘signed scraps of paper’” (van Vliet, et al. Jan. 2017, 10). In Volume 1 of the Haiti Land Transaction Manual, the Working Group also states that [Working Group English Version] “[i]t is not uncommon that the party ‘selling’ the land does not have legal title to the land either. In the case of an informal sale, this adds to the risk for conflicts about ownership down the line” (Working Group 26 June 2012, VI, VIII). 2. Process for the Legal Sale of Land Ownership In correspondence with the Research Directorate, a lawyer in Port-au-Prince who is also a member of the Faculty of Legal and Political Science (Faculté des sciences juridiques et politiques) at the Université Quisqueya in Port-au-Prince provided the following details: [translation] The following rules must be applied for the sale of land. First, the land must be measured by a surveyor. The seller signs a promise of sale to the buyer for the buyer to obtain financing from a bank. The seller submits their property titles to a notary public. Both parties sign the bill of sale. The bill of sale is then registered by the notary at the Property Conservation Officer (Bureau de la conservation foncière) at the buyer’s expense. (Lawyer 25 June 2020) According to Volume 1 of the Haiti Land Transaction Manual, land can be legally sold by private seal or genuine deed (Working Group 26 June 2012, 2). Corroborating information could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response. The source defines these processes as follows: [Working Group English Version] • Sale by act of private seal: the sale is completed without the involvement of a notary and is an agreement between two parties. It does not follow the formalities required by law but may include some steps of the sale by genuine deed, such as the promise of sale and the surveying of the property (arpentage). Sometimes the sale documents are signed before a lawyer or a justice of the peace. In order to be legally recognized, the private seal must be “recorded and transcribed in order to be effective against third parties”; • Sale by genuine deed: genuine deed of sale is prepared by the notary and obeys strict principles required by the law. It must be registered with the Office of Land Registry of the DGI where the property is located and “be transcribed at the Office of Land Registry and Mortgages attached to the Civil Tribunal for the municipality where the property is located and the notary is commissioned.” The genuine deed is valid upon signature before the notary. (Working Group 26 June 2012, 2) The same source adds that a sale by genuine deed involves four main steps: the preliminary sale agreement (also called the promise of sale (la promesse de vente)), the survey of the property, the preparation of the bill of sale and the registration and transcription of the bill of sale after the taxes have been paid to the DGI (Working Group 26 June 2012, 4). The manual specifies that the surveying step consists in a surveyor surveying the property and writing a survey document, and the preparation of the bill of sale step involves [Working Group English Version] “[the] verification of title documents, [the] compilation of documentation for the sale, [the] writing of bill of sale [and the] collection of fees and taxes by the notary” (Working Group 26 June 2012, 4).