Powers of Attorney/Real Estate: Electronic Registry Finally Up and Running
After more than two weeks of technical disruptions, the wakala.justice.ma platform dedicated to the registration of powers of attorney relating to real property rights has finally been fully operational since Friday, June 19.
Legal professionals are now able to complete all the formalities required to register powers of attorney in the electronic registry. Since June 1, all powers of attorney relating to real property rights have been required by law to be registered in the national electronic registry. Failing registration, they no longer produce any legal effect.
In practical terms, an unregistered power of attorney is legally ineffective.
However, the wakala.justice.ma platform, designed to host these registrations, had been plagued by technical malfunctions since its launch.
Practitioners encountered major difficulties in completing the entire registration process.
The National Council of Notaries received a flood of complaints from professionals who must update thousands of existing powers of attorney relating to real property rights by registering them in the electronic registry maintained by the clerk of the Court of First Instance under the supervision of the court president. The court clerk is authorized to issue certified copies, extracts, and certificates relating to the registration, non-registration, cancellation, or amendment of powers of attorney.
Electronic Signature: A Critical Component of the System
Despite trying multiple web browsers, notaries were unable to submit registration requests successfully.
An error message systematically appeared whenever they attempted to finalize the process.
As a result, legal professionals urged their professional association to find a rapid solution to the deadlock.
«The system was not fully operational on June 1 because court registry offices had not yet received their Barid e-Sign digital signature keys needed to validate powers of attorney. The same problem affected bank branches. In fact, all electronic signatures relating to mortgage releases, mortgage agreements, property sales, and similar transactions were blocked,» explained Me Jamal Mohada, a notary.
Hassan EL ARIF
