The land is a whole and to make it viable, it is customary to transform it beforehand into several lots resulting from the division of a land property in strict compliance with town planning rules: this is the subdivision. We are therefore well downstream, in the presence of a land unit intended to be upstream, split up for efficient transformation, in compliance with national and international standards in terms of land development. In any case, the objective of the subdivision is to facilitate the exploitation, rental or transfer of the land by a division in ownership or enjoyment. It is then necessary to respect a legally framed procedure so that we can eventually speak of subdivided land. This leads us to wonder about: what is the subdivision procedure in Cameroon? Following this problem, it is important to point out from the outset that there are three types of housing estates, each with their own procedure, in this case the state housing estate, the municipal housing estate and the private housing estate. It is, moreover, the last type of subdivision that holds our attention in the context of this analysis. Consequently, if it is admitted that the Cameroonian legislator has developed a legal procedure for the private subdivision of land, it is nonetheless true that there are important prerequisites.

PREREQUISITES TO ANY PRIVATE LAND LOT PROCEDURE IN CAMEROON

You should know that the subdivision generally highlights two major actors: the Owner or the initiator of the service (the promoter) and the operator of the service (the subdivider), who is generally called the financier in Cameroon, when having right does not have the direct means of initiating the procedure. This preliminary and important meeting is used to set the milestones of the owner's vision, combined with the expertise of the financier, who can easily provide general information and give the approximate deadlines for carrying out the work with regard to his experience and his contacts in the field.

Cameroonian land practice therefore favors calls for financing of subdivisions, where the rights holders generally promise a compensatory area to the financier, in the event of the work being carried out. But the latter, before truly committing to it, is often forced to pay a "signing bonus". A memorandum of understanding between the parties is then signed before a notary, so that each party respects its commitments. The subdivision procedure itself can therefore be launched.

THE PRIVATE SUBDIVISION PROCEDURE IN CAMEROON

The legal framework for subdivision on the initiative of private individuals or legal entities is contained in the following texts: 2004 law on town planning (Articles 54 to 64); decree of 79 on the rules relating to the creation of subdivisions and complementary and amending decree N ° 90/1481 of November 09, 1990.

Thus, for the subdivision to be possible, the land must first be registered. If there is not yet a land title on the said land, it will be imperative to start with the registration (see our article on registration) before starting the subdivision procedure. It is useful to remember that it is not necessary to launch a subdivision procedure for land with less than 04 lots intended for the construction of dwelling houses; a planning certificate is sufficient to sell.

Overall, the subdivision must be created on the initiative of the owner of the land. Thus, the aforementioned financier, to carry out the procedure, must act in the name and on behalf of the latter who is the real applicant. The subdivision application file as described by article 4 of the decree of 79 (you can find it here), must be deposited at the town hall against receipt. The mayor sends the file together with his opinion, within 15 days of submission, to the local town planning department. The latter examines the file within 30 days and sends it to the Prefect, who also has 30 days to decide by reasoned decree, from this transmission. At the end of this period, the silence of the Prefect constitutes approval of the subdivision; confers art 6 of the decree of 90 ((you can find it here).

Moreover, the owner, if he does not have the means to personally satisfy a subdivision procedure, can appeal to a financier, who will mobilize a certain number of skills for the realization of the subdivision plan by topographic survey on a scale of 1/1000 or 1/5000 which must be stamped by the head of the cadastral service of the location of the building, before being introduced with the other documents in the file indicated in article 4 of the decree of 79 so that the Minister validates the subdivision by decree.

An operationalization on the ground with machines, which only consists in materializing this subdivision plan will therefore be made in the end, in order to make the site viable for better exploiting it, renting it or selling it, after a physical delimitation of the plots by demarcation and right-of-way of land routes.

Key words:

Subdivision procedure

Applicant

Financial

Mayor, minister

Town planning