Resource information
Buying and selling land legally in Haiti is a complex and often misunderstood process. The earthquake in January 2010 exacerbated Haiti's land issues, hampering the country's recovery and slowing redevelopment. This manual documents existing Haitian land laws and customary practices related to the legal sale of land, facilitating a consistent and transparent process that supports tenure security for Haiti's residents and ultimately Haiti's economic growth. This manual is intended to serve as an immediate tool to assist the business and reconstruction communities by clarifying the current legal and customary procedures and standardizing, in writing, the legal procedures necessary to transact and assemble land in Haiti. This manual does not cover all aspects of land transactions in Haiti. Future manuals are planned to document the regularization of land rights and eminent domain. Our hope is that all entities from individuals to government officials, from Haitian businesses to multinational corporations and donors will be encouraged and enabled to engage in the legal sale of property in Haiti. Using this manual and having agreement on the legal process will increase the ability of all actors to be more successful and aware of the legal issues relating to property transfer in Haiti. The manual was developed by the Haiti Property Law Working Group, which is made up of roughly 100 experts, practitioners, donors and government officials working to clarify Haiti's land law in an inclusive and transparent manner. The nuanced and inclusive process of developing this manual lasted almost a year. To ensure the manual's accuracy, drafts were circulated for comments and regional stakeholder meetings were held in Port-au-Prince, Cap-Ha¯tien, Les Cayes and Léog¢ne to solicit feedback. Stakeholder meetings included national and local government officials, notaries, surveyors, nongovernmental organizations, bilateral and multilateral agencies, and the Haitian financial and insurance sectors. After the publication of this manual and future manuals, assuming funding remains available, the working group will develop and implement training to educate all interested parties about the manuals and to promote their broad adoption and use. Training materials will be available in French, Creole and English, and may include a series of workshops and face-to-face and online training opportunities for public officials, lawyers, notaries and surveyors, among others. The working group has begun research on other important aspects of secure tenure and land rights in Haiti, including the regularization of title and eminent domain. In addition, the working group has identified bottlenecks and challenges to the effective functioning of the Haitian property rights systems. Subject to the availability of funding, the working group will support capacity building of Haitian institutions involved in matters of property rights and secure tenure.
