Inheritance
Buying a property whose owner has died
In Douala and Yaoundé, many houses on the market are still in the name of a parent who has died. You can buy one safely on one condition: the estate has to be settled before the sale, not after.
A title in the name of someone who has died
It happens all the time. The father built in the 1980s or 1990s, the title stayed in his name, and his children now live in Douala, Paris or Montreal. One of them puts the house up for sale. As long as the title is in the late owner’s name, no single heir can sell it alone.
Who can sell
The heirs, together. The file usually includes:
- a court ruling on heirship (jugement d’hérédité) stating who the heirs are;
- the estate declaration and payment of inheritance duties to the tax office;
- transfer of the title into the heirs’ names at the Land Registry;
- the agreement of every heir to sell, each signing in person or by power of attorney.
If one of the heirs is a minor, the sale needs additional authorisations. If an heir cannot be found or refuses to sell, the sale stays blocked until that is resolved.
The risk: one heir selling alone
A common scenario: one of the children sells, with a copy of the title and a family document presented as an authorisation. The buyer pays, then builds or moves in. Two years later, a brother or sister comes back from abroad and contests the sale. The sale could not be registered, or was registered on shaky grounds, and the buyer ends up in court.
Minutes of a family council signed by a few relatives replace neither the heirship ruling nor the transfer in the register.
When some of the heirs live abroad
That is often the case in the files we handle: part of the family lives in France, Canada, Switzerland or the United States. Each heir can sign by power of attorney. The notary will tell you the form required; usually the power of attorney is signed before a notary or legalised by the Cameroonian consulate in the heir’s country of residence.
Allow time for it. Gathering five signatures across three continents takes weeks, sometimes months.
If you are the heir
Selling a family property from abroad? Start with the estate, before you have even found a buyer. A property whose title is already in the heirs’ names is easier to sell: the buyer and the buyer’s notary know who signs, and nothing will hold up the transfer.
Have a land title you want checked? Send us a clear photo of it, the property’s location and the seller’s name. We’ll tell you what needs checking and how long it will take.
This article gives general information. It does not replace advice from a notary or a lawyer on your own file.
Manfred Gabriel Njoh
Founder of Henser Group, consultant in Douala since 2011. He follows each file himself, from the first visit to signing at the notary’s office.