How to read your plan and your technical file

01Which document do you have?

The word “plan” covers very different documents, and they do not carry the same weight. Identify yours:

• The title plan (plan foncier, التصميم العقاري): the official plan of land that is registered or undergoing registration. It shows the boundaries and the area (Decree No. 2-13-18, Article 4). It bears the surveyor's name, the survey date, and the name and signature of the head of the cadastre service or their delegate (Article 21).

• The parcel plan (plan parcellaire): a common term for a plan showing a plot, its boundaries and its markers. It can refer to an official title plan or to a mere survey by a private firm. Trust the signature, not the heading.

• The spot-height plan (plan coté, التصميم المرقم): a topographic plan with dimensions and elevations, used to design a project.

• The boundary sketch and the boundary marking report (محضر التحديد): drawn up on site, they record what happened and where the markers were placed.

• The technical file (الملف التقني): the documents that back up a plan, with the measurements and calculations.

For what each plan is used for, see our guide to cadastral plans. The ANCFCC's “E-Plan cadastral” service lets you order a plan and check its authenticity.

02Parcel plan: what each entry means

Look for the following items one by one. An old plan may not show them all.

• The boundaries

  the line that closes the polygon of the property, from one marker to the next. On a title plan, it is the boundary set at the boundary marking, not necessarily today's fence.

• The numbered markers

  B1, B2, B3… are the corners of the polygon (Decree, Article 20); the cadastre's instructions add one at each change of neighbour or type of boundary. After a subdivision, the new plan keeps the numbering of the original title: numbers may be missing without any error.

• The grid and Lambert coordinates

  the grid is labelled with X values (increasing eastward) and Y values (increasing northward). The connection to the geodetic network (Decree, Article 21) makes it possible to place the property on the cadastral map and to recompute the position of a lost marker. Fez is in zone I (North Morocco). A phone gives a different system: use our Lambert converter.

• The scale

  1/500, 1/1000, 1/2000… See the next section.

• North

  an arrow or the grid orients the plan. On site, turn the plan using a road or the corner of a wall. Compass north differs slightly from grid north: do not use it to judge a boundary.

• The neighbouring properties (المجاورون): what touches each side: a titled property, a registration application, a person, a road, a wadi. The cadastre's instructions require a registered neighbouring property to be designated by its name and number.

• The nature of the ground, or consistency

  bare land, building, plantations, well, track. This is the condition at the date of the survey. On plans, “TC” means terrain de culture, or farmland.

• The area (contenance, المساحة): the surface, in hectares, ares and centiares.

• The cadastral map and the locating sheet

  the cadastre service plots connected plans on the cadastral map (Decree, Article 22). This reference tells you where to find the property among its neighbours.

• R or T, and the name of the property

  R indicates a registration application (registration in progress), T a land title. In a fictitious example: “R 00000/00, property known as X”. Copy the full reference, including what follows the slash: one different digit points to another property.

03Scale and area: two sums you should know

Scale. At 1/1000, the drawing is 1,000 times smaller than the land: 1 cm measured is 10 m, and a square with 1 cm sides is 100 m². Likewise, 1 cm is 2 m at 1/200, 5 m at 1/500, 20 m at 1/2000 and 50 m at 1/5000.

The PDF trap. The “fit to page” option shrinks or enlarges the drawing to fill the sheet, so the written scale is no longer true. Print at “actual size” (100%) on the original paper format. Check with a ruler: measure the gap between two grid lines and compare it with the difference in their coordinates (at 1/1000, 100 m gives 10 cm), or measure a length written on the plan.

Area. 1 hectare (ha) = 100 ares (a); 1 are = 100 centiares (ca); 1 centiare = 1 m². The figures therefore read as a single number of square metres: 37 a 24 ca = 3,724 m²; 2 ha 05 a 40 ca = 20,540 m². Watch out: 5 a 8 ca is 508 m², not 58. Our area unit tool does the conversion.

Where the figure comes from. A regular title plan must make it possible to determine by calculation the coordinates of the perimeter and the area, regardless of the scale of the drawing (cadastre technical instruction, Article 3). The adopted area is the one calculated from the coordinates; graphic measurement is used as a check and is done on the original, not on a print (Articles 59 and 64). With a ruler on a copy, you get a check, not a result. The instruction also provides, as a general rule, for rounding the area to four significant figures for rural land and five for urban land (Article 62): a difference of a few square metres may come from that.

04Spot-height plan: relief, not ownership

The topographic spot-height plan describes the land as it is: dimensions, buildings, elevations.

• Contour lines connect points at the same elevation: close together they indicate a steep slope; far apart, almost flat ground.

• Spot heights give the elevation of a precise place: a wall corner, a threshold, the edge of a road.

• What it allows

  siting a building, setting levels, planning water runoff, estimating earthworks, checking setbacks.

• What it does not allow

  fixing a legal boundary, proving ownership or a legal area, settling a dispute with a neighbour.

It may draw a boundary by reproducing the markers of the title or those found on site, but that remains a representation. On titled land, the reference is the title plan; on untitled land, the registration boundary marking will fix the boundaries. Have the two plans reconciled before building, and ask for the survey date and the origin of the elevations.

05Boundary technical file: from preparation to plan

Behind the plan, each operation leaves documents that make it possible to check the work or, years later, to find a marker again. The file comes from the cadastre service (registration boundary marking) or from a private surveying engineer (subdivision, housing estate, reinstatement of markers…). It contains:

• The survey project (projet de levé): the preparation. The surveyor gathers documentation on the reference points and the neighbouring properties, inspects the land and settles the organisation of the survey (technical instruction, Article 8).

• Control points and stations

  control points are the markers with known coordinates to which the survey is tied, notably those of the geodetic network; stations are the positions of the instrument.

• Sightings (visées): measurements of angles and distances from a station. The survey of a marker must be checked by an independent measurement (Article 29).

• The survey sketch (croquis de levé): according to the instruction, the key document, a diagram that any other officer must be able to use (Article 37). Rely on the written lengths, not on a measurement taken with a ruler. A station may be marked “PF”: piquet en fer, an iron stake that marks the point on the ground.

• The boundary sketch and report

  the sketch, a summary plan drawn up on site (1913 Dahir, Article 20), is annexed to the report, which gives the date, those present, their statements, the markers, the boundaries, the documents and the agreements (Article 21).

• The calculations

  they turn the measurements into coordinates, then into an area (Articles 38 and 55 onwards). They include the V0M (or VZM), a mean bearing angle that orients the measurements taken at each station.

• The area table (tableau de contenances): the history of operations on the property and the resulting area (Article 63).

• The tracing and the prints

  the tracing (calque) is the transparent version used to reproduce the drawing; prints are copies of it, which can distort.

Who has what? The technical file for a subdivision, a housing estate or a reinstatement of markers is filed with the cadastre service for checking, plotting on the map, approval and archiving (Decree, Article 17). The land registrar annexes the final title plan to the title (Article 21). A manual by the ANCFCC and the ONIGT (2019) lists the documents by operation.

We have not found any text listing what the engineer must keep or give you. So state it in the quote: signed plan, report, coordinates of the markers, area calculation, PDF. Anyone who proves their identity and gives the number of the title or application can obtain the information and plans in the file (Decree, Article 27), on payment of the prescribed fees (Article 28).

06BI and BC: initial and supplementary boundary marking

In cadastre documents, BI (bornage d'immatriculation) means the registration boundary marking, which delimits the property for the first time; it is commonly called the initial boundary marking. BC (bornage complémentaire) means a supplementary boundary marking: according to the cadastre's instructions, it serves to correct the boundaries of the first marking, to delimit a claim or to remove one.

• A BC can change the plan: a plan is drawn up at the end of the operation (Decree, Article 4) and shows only the new area. An older copy may therefore show a different area or boundary.
• A BC can reopen objections: if it extends the boundaries, the notice of completion of the boundary marking is published again (1913 Dahir, Article 23), and objections are made within two months of that publication (Article 24).

If your file mentions a BC, ask for its date, its purpose and the resulting plan. See our boundary guide and tracking a file.

07Reading a co-ownership plan

A co-ownership plan describes one level of the building: private parts, common parts, fraction numbers, walls and interior dimensions. The vertical section places that level within the height of the building; the title block gives its elevations and the date of the condition survey.

The table of areas shows the interior area on one side and the total including overhang and balcony on the other: check which area the title and the deed use. “PF” next to a balcony means porte-fenêtre, a French window.

08Checklist when you receive your plan

Lay the plan, the deed and the certificate side by side and write down your questions: a precise question gets a precise answer.

1. 01

   Reference and name.

   The full number and the name of the property are identical on the plan, the report, the deed and the certificate.

2. 02

   Signature and date.

   The plan bears its author's name and the survey date; a title plan also bears the signature of the cadastre service. Consult the Order's roll to check that the engineer is registered.

3. 03

   Scale and map reference.

   The same scale and the same map reference appear on the plan and the accompanying documents.

4. 04

   Area.

   Convert the area with the area unit tool and compare it with the deed and the certificate. If the file gives the coordinates of the markers, recalculate the area with the area tool.

5. 05

   Markers on the ground.

   Walk the land and note each marker found or missing. According to the decree, a marker set in the ground bears the letters “I.F” and stands 5 cm proud (Article 20). Take photos, but move nothing: moving or destroying a registration marker is punishable (Dahir, Article 105).

6. 06

   Neighbours.

   Compare the names and numbers with what you know of the neighbourhood. A neighbour who has sold is not an error; an unknown neighbour deserves a question.

7. 07

   Walls and buildings.

   Check whether a wall or building crosses the line. If you measure on a printed PDF, check the scale first.

Living abroad? Check the PDF, then ask a relative to photograph each marker and record its position with our GPS survey tool. It is an approximate guide, not a surveyor's measurement.

09If something does not match: what to do, and in what order

A discrepancy is not necessarily an error or a fraud. Touch nothing on the land and do not sign a deed until the point has been cleared up.

1. 01

   Write to the surveyor who drew the plan, giving the reference, the documents compared and the discrepancy in figures, and ask for a written reply.

2. 02

   For a title plan, go to the cadastre service. If the plan no longer matches the state of the land, the prescribed route is a technical file to bring the plan into line, prepared by a registered engineer (Decree, Article 17).

3. 03

   For an application in progress, watch the deadlines. Boundaries are challenged by objection, within two months of the publication of the notice of completion of the boundary marking (Dahir, Article 24). Consult a lawyer without delay.

4. 04

   For titled land, the title is final (Dahir, Article 62): a change of boundary requires a deed and formalities at the land registry. Start by having an engineer put a figure on the discrepancy.

5. 05

   In a dispute with a neighbour, have the land measured, try to reach an amicable agreement, then consult a lawyer. The court may appoint a judicial expert; the judge decides.

6. 06

   In the event of personal fault by the engineer, any interested person may file a complaint with the regional council of the Order to which they belong (Law No. 30-93, Articles 84 and 85), within five years of the facts (Article 86); the courts remain open (Article 79).

7. 07

   For a service problem at the ANCFCC, the Chikaya complaints platform is available from the portal.

Ellipsoide, a surveying engineering firm in Fez, can check a plan and markers on site: see our boundary service.