Fraud on residence certificates: The Ministry of the Interior will strengthen controls

With the high prices of residence certificates, necessary for the “liberation” of the state mortgage on social housing, the Ministry of the Interior is strengthening its efforts to combat fraudulent practices. These documents, which prove that the property has been used as a main residence for four years, are now the target of fraud networks.

Appropriate certificates, such as residence certificates, are among the documents required to “release” a state mortgage on social housing. They confirm that the applicant has used the property as their main residence for the past four years. However, fraud networks take advantage of the increase in demand during periods of high migration, especially in the summer when migrants return to their countries of origin, to increase the cost of these certificates to high prices, often higher than 3 000 Dh.

The Ministry of Interior has recently stepped up its efforts against these illegal practices. Guidelines have been issued to local authorities and administrative officials to strengthen monitoring of the distribution of these certificates.

Governors and senior officials were responsible for overseeing and verifying the procedures for obtaining the certificates necessary for the request for “release” of social housing. The aim of this guidance is to ensure that procedures comply with the conditions established by the current hybrid support system, which combines the old exemption from VAT with new direct housing support.

Composed of intermediaries and brokers, and sometimes involving civil servants, these networks exploit a major loophole: users’ national identity cards do not indicate the place of residence of the that person By taking advantage of this loophole, they force applicants to pay large sums of money to obtain the necessary certificates.

Current regulations require that recipients of public assistance do not own other properties registered in their name, and must provide proof of this. In addition, social housing buyers benefiting from VAT exemption are only allowed to resell their property after four years, and only after receiving the “release” certificate from the tax administration get out. If they do not comply with these requirements, beneficiaries must pay the exempt VAT, as well as late payment fines and recovery costs. In addition, the property must be reserved for primary residence and cannot be rented or used for other purposes, under penalty of losing the privileges granted.

The Ministry of the Interior introduced this new measure in response to the increase in fraud cases related to state-funded social housing. It has been seen that some individuals are buying these apartments for rent or using them as second homes, especially in coastal towns.

These are mainly abusive practices aimed at taking advantage of the VAT exemption offered by the government. After four years, the beneficiaries of these subsidies contact intermediaries to obtain residence certificates confirming that they are actually in the housing they received under social housing programs.

In addition to monitoring administrative certificates, the Director General of Excise (DGI) has strengthened controls on documents presented to obtain “clearance” certificates, especially in busy coastal areas in the summer. Therefore, many people buy apartments in these areas to rent in the summer and must obtain occupancy certificates at any cost, often through broker networks.