The Lease (Tenancy) Contract in Morocco
If you are renting a home, a commercial premises, or a rural property in Morocco, the Code of Obligations and Contracts (DOC) sets the rules of the game: price, duration, repairs, the end of the lease, and the lessor's guarantees. This guide explains what the DOC actually provides, without jargon. Article by article.
The essentials in brief
The lease (hire of things) rests on a determined price and an obligation, for the tenant, to pay and to preserve the premises. Beyond one year, a lease of immovable property must be in writing, otherwise it is valid for an indefinite duration [Art. 629]. At maturity, a fixed-term contract ends as of right, without notice [Art. 687], but if the tenant remains, it is renewed [Art. 689]. The lessor has a right of retention over the furniture to secure the rent [Art. 684].
The price: the condition that makes the lease exist
No price, no lease. The DOC is clear: the price must be determined [Art. 633]. And it is not only a matter of money.
The price may be fixed in cash, but also in produce, in foodstuffs, or in other movable things, provided that the quantity and quality are specified [Art. 633]. It may even consist of an undivided share of the produce of the thing rented — useful, for example, for agricultural land where the rent is settled in harvest.
For leases of rural property, the DOC allows a combination: a sum in cash or a levy in produce, plus the obligation for the tenant to carry out certain specified works, those works being considered part of the price [Art. 633]. Honestly, this is where many contracts become unclear. If the rent mixes money, foodstuffs, and works, write each component down in black and white. A vague rent is a disputed rent.
Is a writing required? The one-year rule
Many believe a verbal lease always suffices. Wrong, as soon as twelve months are exceeded.
Leases of immovable property and of real-estate rights concluded for more than one year must be recorded in writing [Art. 629]. In the absence of a written instrument, the lease is deemed made for an indefinite duration — you therefore lose the firm term you were counting on. This is not a nullity, but a reclassification, and it changes everything for the exit.
There is a second tier to this rule. Leases of immovable property exceeding one year produce effect against third parties only if they are registered under the conditions fixed by law [Art. 629]. In other words: between you and your contracting party, the agreement exists; against a third party (a purchaser, a creditor), registration is what makes your lease enforceable.
The DOC also specifies how the duration is calculated when nothing is agreed. With no term fixed, the hire is deemed made by the year, the half-year, the month, the week, or the day, according to whether the price was fixed per year, per half-year, per month, etc., and the contract ends at the expiry of each of those periods, without notice, save contrary custom [Art. 688]. The periodicity of the rent therefore determines, by default, the periodicity of the lease.
The lesson is simple: if duration matters to you, put it in writing.
The tenant's obligations
The DOC reduces them to two, and they are fundamental [Art. 663].
First, to pay the price of the hire. Next, to preserve the thing rented and to use it without excess or abuse, according to the natural purpose of the property or that which the contract has given it [Art. 663]. Concretely: a dwelling rented to live in is not turned into a workshop or a warehouse without agreement. The agreed purpose is a legal limit, not a mere formality.
As for minor repairs, the division depends on the contract and on custom. In leases of immovable property, the tenant is liable for tenant's repairs or minor upkeep only if the contract or custom places it on them [Art. 639]. The DOC lists these minor repairs: a few broken paving stones or tiles, the windowpanes (except for breakage by hail or another extraordinary accident of force majeure not attributable to the tenant), the doors, casements, partition boards or shop shutters, hinges, bolts, and locks [Art. 639].
And the rest? It falls to the lessor. The whitewashing of rooms, the restoration of paintwork, the replacement of wallpaper, works on terraces — even simple rendering or whitewashing — are the lessor's responsibility [Art. 639]. Frankly, this is the article to reread before any dispute about the condition of the premises.
A detail for rural or furnished leases: if the lease includes utensils, livestock, or provisions (hay, straw, fertiliser), each party must give the other an exact and signed inventory, and submit to a joint valuation [Art. 703]. The inventory is not paperwork: it is your proof at the time of return.
The lessor's guarantees
The lessor is not powerless when the rent does not come in. The DOC grants them a powerful right of retention.
This right bears on the rent due and on that of the current year, and is exercised over the furniture and movable things present on the rented premises — whether they belong to the tenant, the sub-tenant, or even to third parties [Art. 684]. The lessor may oppose their removal by resorting to the competent authority, and reclaim them if they were taken out without the lessor's knowledge or despite their opposition [Art. 684].
But this power has limits, and they are strict. Retention or reclamation is exercised only up to the value necessary to secure the claim; no right to follow if the goods remaining on site are sufficient [Art. 684]. The reclamation must take place within the fifteen days following the moment the lessor became aware of the removal [Art. 684]. And the right does not apply to things that cannot be seized, to stolen or lost things, nor to the goods of third parties where the lessor knew, at the time of their introduction, that they belonged to another [Art. 684].
The DOC adds a general rule: Article 574 applies to the hire [Art. 658]. If you are a tenant, you are therefore not without protection — your everyday belongings keep the safeguards provided by law.
The end of the lease: notice, renewal, occupation
This is the ground where misunderstandings are costly. Three mechanisms to remember.
First: the fixed-term lease ends as of right at the expiry of the agreed term, without any notice being necessary, save contrary agreement or special rules for farm leases [Art. 687]. You do not have to notify the end of a lease whose deadline is fixed — it imposes itself on its own.
Second: renewal. If, at expiry, the tenant remains in possession, the lease is renewed on the same conditions. For the same period if it had a determined term; and if it was without term, each of the parties may terminate it, the tenant retaining the period fixed by local custom to vacate the premises [Art. 689]. To remain is therefore to restart the contract — think of it before keeping the keys.
Third, and often misunderstood: the lessor cannot end the tenancy on the sole ground that they declare wanting to occupy the rented house themselves [Art. 693]. The wish to live in one's own property does not, on its own, suffice to end the lease.
A final word on indefinite-duration contracts. The DOC provides, in the context of the hire of services, that where the term is not determined each of the parties may withdraw from the contract by giving notice within the periods established by local custom or by agreement [Art. 754]. The logic of notice based on local custom runs through the whole DOC.
Before signing or leaving, ask yourself a simple question: do I have written proof of the duration, the price, and the condition of the premises?
References
- [Art. 629] — Code of Obligations and Contracts (DOC)
- [Art. 633] — Code of Obligations and Contracts (DOC)
- [Art. 639] — Code of Obligations and Contracts (DOC)
- [Art. 658] — Code of Obligations and Contracts (DOC)
- [Art. 663] — Code of Obligations and Contracts (DOC)
- [Art. 684] — Code of Obligations and Contracts (DOC)
- [Art. 687] — Code of Obligations and Contracts (DOC)
- [Art. 688] — Code of Obligations and Contracts (DOC)
- [Art. 689] — Code of Obligations and Contracts (DOC)
- [Art. 693] — Code of Obligations and Contracts (DOC)
- [Art. 703] — Code of Obligations and Contracts (DOC)
- [Art. 754] — Code of Obligations and Contracts (DOC)
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