The procedures for transferring ownership of a property in Iraq are not complicated, as they are done through simple steps, and do not require several documents to be completed, as the Iraqi government is keen to facilitate all the procedures and transactions for Iraqi citizens through its various departments. Therefore, the procedures for transferring ownership of a property in Iraq do not require many steps, during which the transfer of ownership is submitted after the citizen receives it from the real estate registry to the in charge of the department to be transferred to and then it is confirmed.
- It’s not on the reserved names list
- From all changes and disclosures, if any.
- Indicating the position of paying taxes due from the additional property tax, in order to ascertain whether there are any debts or not, until they are paid.
Sequential Stages of Transfer of Ownership
The process of transferring ownership of real estate takes place through several phases, where the transfer request goes through the following stages:
- Real estate tax
- Tax Inspection
- Seller’s Clearance
- Land tax clearance
Guidelines to consider when transferring ownership of a property in Iraq
There are some notes and instructions that you should be aware of in case you are about to transfer ownership of a property, which we can address through the following points:
- If the supervisor notices a secondment, in this case a report is submitted to the assessment committee for the estimation of the separate property.
- If the application submitted has the approval or conviction of the department official of the estimated annual allowances for the property, instructions are issued to the principal clerk so that the method of payment or recovery of tax debts for payment to the fund is regulated.
- If the annual allowances on the leased property decrease, the controller is the main responsible for submitting the report on the import to the committee concerned with examining the compensation.
- If the financial authority or the in charge is not convinced of the decision issued by the assessment committee, in this case the two parties have the right to file an objection to the assessment committee, and both parties have the full right to object to the committee’s decision at the property tax office during the declared legal period, which lasts for 30 days, and the validity starts from the date of notification of the decision.
- In the event that claims are found about the taxpayer for the additional tax, a payment or collection form is organized until it is paid into the fund.
- The required documents to transfer ownership of a property in Iraq
- When applying to complete the procedures for transferring ownership of a property in Iraq, there are some documents that need to be prepared and submitted to the competent authorities, and these documents include the following:
- Submit a statement of knowledge and news documented by the municipality
- A recent title deed of the property
- A decision to disclose the property with an explanation of the initial evaluation of the property’s value
- The identities
- Legitimate distribution of transfer and sale transactions
- A copy of the court’s decision in the event of a court ruling to sell
- Execution letter with the auction minutes attached if the sale is made to the executive authority
- The building permit, in the case of added buildings, as well as the restoration permit if the property has been previously renovated.
- Electricity paper
Property Transfer Tax
During the completion of the procedures for transferring ownership of a property in Iraq, a financial tax is calculated on the transactions that take place during the process of transferring ownership, in accordance with resolution No. (120) of (2002) where the tax value is imposed on the profit resulting from the sale of various property transactions.
- The value of the tax on property transfers is calculated according to the value of the property, and that value may be based on the following:
- The value estimated by the Joint Inspection Committee or according to the value of the permissible compensation, whichever is greater, in the case of consensual sales transactions.
- According to the estimated value on the date of discharge or termination allowance, whichever is also greater, in the case of unloading transactions.
- The estimated value during filing a lawsuit or compensation, and the largest value is chosen for judicial sale transactions.
- The value charged for the executive sale compensation or estimated according to a public auction.
- The value of the estimated removal allowance for routine transfers.
How To Verify Property Ownership
- To ascertain the ownership of the property during the transfer of ownership and the completion of purchase transactions, until any fraud or forgery is detected, a copy of the title deed is submitted to the Real Estate Registration Directorate, in addition to submitting a copy of the Iraqi IDs of the property’s owner, in order to investigate the authenticity of his ownership of the property or the share in the property as one of the heirs who own part of the property to the Real Estate Registration Directorate for the region or to the General Real Estate Registration Directorate.
- The buyer has the right to request a photocopy of the owner’s IDs in order to verify the validity of its issuance by the Directorate of General Nationality, to ensure that the seller is not impersonating another person, and then the Iraqi IDs is investigated for the taxes imposed on the owner in the tax department until the verify whether the property is reserved to the Ministry of Finance due to some debts or tax dues or not.
- Both parties, the seller and the buyer, must ensure to write all the details in the sale’s contract, so that each party guarantees all the rights and all power of attorneys are certified by a Notary Public and Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
- If the buyer is going to buy a property from a person who is not residing in Iraq, he must ensure that he obtains from the property owners an absolute power of attorney for the property attested by the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as to ensure to a life certificate for the property owner, provided that it should be recently Issued certified by the notary public and Iraqi embassy.
- If the buyer purchases from a person holding an absolute power of attorney from the original owner of the property, he must verify the validity of the power of attorney’s issuance as well as the validity of the life certificate of the original owner of the property.
Tips to Follow Before Buying a Property
- When you buy a specific property, there are some tips and instructions that must be followed before completing the procedures for transferring ownership of a property in Iraq properly it is better in all cases for all parties.
- Therefore, it is necessary to agree on the date of opening a statement and the date of writing it in the written form of the sale’s contract that will be written between the two parties, and it is not required that the buyer wait until the entire area of the property is sold if he is going to take part of it, and it is necessary to clarify that a fine will be imposed for each day of delay.
- It must also be explicitly indicated in the contract about whether the original party, the first seller, is the one who will decide the property for you or not, and it must also be checked whether the original seller has received the value greater than the price of the property or not.
- But if the original seller does not know the buyer, and the purchase is made through the second seller, a sum of money must be placed until the presence of the original seller in order to determine the ownership, this guarantees the buyer that the second seller will attend the original seller to decide the property.
- Both the seller and the buyer, as well as the witnesses, must write their names in a quadrilateral format in order to avoid the issue of similarity of names in the records of the Civil Personal Department upon registration, signature, and at the end the date of the day on which the contract was made is indicated.
For more details, contact
Ahmed Hankawi