Benin

Registering Property in

Benin

Listed below is a detailed summary of the steps, time and cost involved in registering property, assuming a standardized case of an entrepreneur who wants to purchase land and a building that is already registered and free of title dispute.

The information appearing on this page was collected as part of the Doing Business project, which measures and compares regulations relevant to the life cycle of a small- to medium-sized domestic business in 183 economies. The most recent round of data collection for the project was completed in June 2011.

  • Standard Property Transfer

  • Property Value: XOF 17,831,048.44
  • City: Cotonou

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No. Procedure Time to Complete Associated Costs
1 The notary checks the Property Title at the "Service des Domaines"

Seller brings the title or gives the number of the title to the notary. Notary sends ‘requisition’ to Service des Domaines, so that the Service tells them about the ownership and the pending encumbrances on the property in writing.

Agency: Direction des Domaines, de l'enregistrement et du Timbre 		2 days BTN 1,500
2 The sale agreement is signed and authenticated at the public notary

Parties file the sale agreement at the public notary where they sign the contract and the sale is authenticated.
The scale of fees to pay is as follows, according to the property value:
0 - 5 million francs: 4.5%,
5 - 20 million francs: 3%,
20 - 50 million francs: 1.5%,
50 million francs and above: 0.75%.
2 days Official Notary fee schedule, according to the property value, is as follows 0 to 5.000.000 = 5.000.000 x 4,5% 5.000.001 to 20.000.000 = 15.000.000 x 3% 20.000.001 to 50.000.000 = 3
3 Registration of the sale deed at the Registry of Deeds

During this step the registry verifies if there are any encumbrances still linked to the property and if the transfer is valid. The registration tax was lowered from 12% to 8% property value with the new Finance Law of 2007, which also raised stamp duties from 300 to 800F per page.

Agency: Registry of Deeds 		3 days 8% of property value + Stamp Duty of 800 XOF per page (It is assumed the Sale Deed consists of 4 pages, and 3 copies are required.)
4 The buyer files for a transfer of title at the "Service des Domaines"

The long delay is due to the workload of the only one cadastre serving all of Benin. Articles 943 et 949 du Code Général des Impôts.
The government is sponsoring the transformation of possessory titles into property titles in certain zones (the state pays for 400.000 out of the 500.000 CFA it normally costs). This only concerns 2% of the land so far. The project proceeds zone by zone and all the inhabitants of the zone need to agree with the plan before it starts.




Agency: Direction des Domaines, de l'enregistrement et du Timbre 		3 - 4.5 months 0.3% of property value
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