Documents needed for a property claim before the commission

A case before the Property Claims Commission, or before a civil court applying its law, is first of all a matter of proof. The committee does not assume that the property belonged to the claimant or that it was taken for a political reason; it decides on the papers submitted and the registers it gathers. The office of lawyer Ali Barakat, in Baghdad, al-Yarmouk, follows what that proof requires under the Property Claims Commission Law No. 13 of 2010 and its instructions.

The rule of evidence

Article 6 of the law requires the judicial committee to apply the Evidence Law No. 107 of 1979 where there is no special provision. Official documents, such as land-register entries and decisions of public bodies, carry their evidential weight, while informal documents, witness evidence and expert evidence are assessed under that law. The file is therefore arranged with the strongest evidence first.

Proving prior ownership

The first requirement is proof that the property was registered in the name of the claimant or the predecessor before the taking. The main source is the Real Estate Registration Directorate: the commission branch requests a detailed statement on the property based on the claim form, under article 14 of Instructions No. 5 of 2010. That statement shows the chain of entries from before the taking to the present. It helps if the claimant has kept a copy of an old title deed or the plot and district numbers, so that the form identifies the property precisely.

Proving how it was taken

Article 3 of the law requires the taking to have occurred in one of the ways it lists: confiscation or seizure for political, ethnic, religious or sectarian reasons; appropriation without compensation; expropriation contrary to procedure; free transfer to associates of the former regime; or taking under orders or decisions of the dissolved Revolutionary Command Council. A copy of the confiscation or appropriation decision, or its number and date as shown in the margin of the register entry, is direct evidence. Where the taking was for a political, ethnic or sectarian reason, evidence of that reason forms part of the file.

Proving standing

A person suing in their own right proves their identity. A person suing as an heir provides the inheritance deed (qassam shar'i) naming the heirs and their shares; article 19 lets one heir sue on behalf of the others. A person suing under a power of attorney provides it. Someone living abroad files through Iraqi diplomatic missions under article 18. See heirs and the right to a property claim.

The form

Article 15 of the instructions requires applications to be made on forms prepared by the commission. The form carries the information to the commission branch, so the accuracy of the property details in it, plot number, district and area, affects the accuracy of the register statement requested on its basis.

The property's present state

The committee's decision depends not only on the property's past but also on its present. Article 7 distinguishes property that is unchanged, property with substantial changes, property demolished and rebuilt, property merged with another plot, and mortgaged property. The committee's inspection establishes the state, and article 4 of the instructions defines the "date of the last inspection" as the date of assessing compensation that the committee head adopts as the basis of the decision, where it differs from the filing date.

People harmed by an earlier decision

Article 6 of the instructions allows cases by people harmed by committee decisions under Law No. 2 of 2006 or under CPA Regulation No. 12 of 2004, and by people whose claims were dismissed because of a cancellation of title under Law No. 53 of 1976. A copy of the earlier decision and the stages of challenge against it are central to the file for this group. For the general steps see filing a claim for return or compensation, and to check coverage, properties covered and properties outside jurisdiction.

Legal basis and sources

1. Property Claims Commission Law No. 13 of 2010 (Official Gazette No. 4147 of 9/3/2010) — Articles 3, 6, 7, 18 and 19
2. Instructions No. 5 of 2010 facilitating the implementation of the Property Claims Commission Law (Official Gazette No. 4163 of 6/9/2010) — Articles 4, 6, 14 and 15
3. Evidence Law No. 107 of 1979 (Official Gazette No. 2728 of 3/9/1979)
4. Real Estate Registration Law No. 43 of 1971 (Official Gazette No. 1995 of 10/5/1971)

Frequently asked questions

Related topics and articles

• 01Filing a claim for return of property or compensationHow a claim for return of property or compensation is filed under the Property Claims Commission Law No. 13 of 2010: the form, the detailed register statement, and referral to the civil courts after 30/6/2011.
• 02Heirs and the right to a property claimHow the right to claim return of taken property or compensation passes to heirs under the Property Claims Commission Law: one heir suing for all, the inheritance deed, third-party objection, and heirs abroad.
• 03Properties covered and properties outside jurisdictionWhich properties the Property Claims Commission Law No. 13 of 2010 covers and which it excludes: confiscation for political reasons, appropriation without compensation, unlawful expropriation, transfer to regime associates, and the agrarian reform exclusion.
• 04The Property Claims Commission: who goes to it and the limits of its jurisdictionWho goes to the Property Claims Commission and the limits of its jurisdiction under Law No. 13 of 2010: independence and attachment to parliament, the covered period, judicial committees, and referral to the civil courts.
• 05Objecting to and appealing commission decisionsHow decisions of Property Claims Commission judicial committees are challenged: the appeal panel, objection to default judgments, third-party objection, retrial, cassation, and automatic cassation where the State is ordered to pay or return.

Always check the text in force and its amendments in the official source.

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