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Tartous Informal Settlements to be Zoned Under Urban Planning Law

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The Executive Office of the Tartous City Council proposed in March to establish 14 new zoning areas in the city under the provisions of the Urban Planning and Development Law No. 23 of 2015. The Executive Office sent the proposal to the Ministry of Local Administration and Environment for the approval to zone the areas, which mostly contain informal settlements .

The proposed zoning areas include 11 locations south of Tartous, and three locations to the north of the city. Information about the informal settlements in these areas is scarce and conflicting. About 100,000 people live in these informal settlements, the oldest of which appeared about five decades ago, according to figures published by the official press. Residents of these informal settlements are prohibited from conducting subdivision and unification transactions for their properties or obtaining building and rehabilitation permits.

Days before, the Central Region branch of the General Company for Engineering Studies (GCES) completed the topographic survey plans for these 14 areas and delivered them to the Tartous City Council. The company was supposed to have completed these plans in December 2019, according to contract No. 19 signed with the Tartous City Council in December 2018. In May 2023, the Ministry of Public Works and Housing, through the governor of Tartous, instructed the engineering company to expedite the completion and delivery of the topographic plans for these areas. The engineering company justified the delay in delivering the plans due to the conditions associated with the spread of the coronavirus and the fuel crisis in the country.

The proposed zoning areas in the southern part of Tartous city are referred to as the Southern Expansion Areas. Several decisions were made to zone these areas in 2006 and 2008. In fact, the Southern Expansion Areas were included in the Tartous City’s General Master Plan issued in 2008. However, a disagreement occurred at that time between the Tartous Governorate and the Ministry of Housing regarding whether the informal settlements in these areas could be considered part of the urban expansion areas of Tartous city. This dispute hindered the work in the new urban expansion areas.

In March 2016, the Tartous City Council issued Decision No. 45, which approved the zoning of informal settlements in the Southern Expansion Areas under the provisions of Law No. 23 of 2015. In May 2016, the City Council issued Decision No. 67 to zone locations outside the Southern Expansion under the provisions of Law No. 23. The Executive Office of the Tartous Governorate Council ratified both decisions from the City Council, under its Decision No. 773 in October 2016.

Law No. 23 of 2015 outlined three options for dealing with informal settlements: zone them under Article Two of its provisions, subject them to the Real Estate Development and Investment Law No. 15 of 2008 (which was replaced by the Investment Law No. 2 of 2023), or apply the prevailing expropriation law.

As of today, it is unclear which option will be adopted for zoning these areas. Damascus might lean towards applying Section Two of Law No. 23 because this section covers the zoning aspects, which involve subdividing land into zoning plots by the administrative unit. This section of the law could be applied in several cases, including urban expansion areas that are included in the zoning plans, as is the case with the Southern Expansion in Tartous city.

If Section Two is applied, Law No. 23 of 2015 grants the administrative unit the right to freely deduct up to 40 percent of the properties in the area if the property is located outside the provincial centres and in rural areas, and 50 percent if the property is within the provincial centres. The law justifies this free deduction by the benefit that the property owner receives as a result of their property entering a zoned or divided area, and the subsequent increase in the property’s market value. Additionally, Law No. 23 of 2015 considers the zoning area a legal entity that replaces all owners and rights holders within it, and the zoning process concludes with the distribution of its properties to the rights holders according to their shares.

Rights holders in the zoning area do not have the right to choose the locations of their new plots within the zoning plans, through a process called compulsory land readjustment. Law No. 23 of 2015 also requires beneficiaries of the zoning process to bear the costs of the infrastructure built by the administrative unit. These costs are considered a priority debt, and the new plots cannot be transferred to their owners until the debt is paid.

Under Law No. 23 of 2015, a tenant occupying a property in the area under the old Rent Law No. 111 of 1952 and its amendments, is granted 40 percent of the property’s share in the new zoning area, with 60 percent going to the property owner. However, Law No. 23 of 2015 does not recognise any rights for occupants and owners of properties built on state-owned lands, except for the ruins of their homes. They may be granted the right to apply for alternative housing, which is not free, if available from the administrative unit.

Aleppo City Demolishes Quake-Damaged Building Without Offering Alternative Housing

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A work crew of the Aleppo City Council demolished in February a dilapidated building in an informal settlement within the Ferdous neighbourhood in the eastern part of the city. It was demolished due to the building’s dangerous condition and the potential for it to collapse at any moment, following significant damage it sustained during the earthquake on February 6, 2023.

The Public Safety Committee of the City Council, in a report issued towards the end of 2023 classified the building as cracked and in need of foundation repairs, but did not recommend evacuating the residents. The committee informed the residents of the building’s danger, but did not advise them to evacuate, according to a correspondent for The Syria Report in the area. In early February 2024, several residents approached the City Council after they visually observed a significant increase in cracks and fissures, particularly in the columns. Subsequently, the Public Safety Committee inspected the building again and decided to evacuate it immediately after detecting cracks in the building’s structure and a subsidence in one of its main columns.

The building, unlicensed, was constructed on a private plot of land within an unzoned area classified for agricultural use where construction is prohibited. Consequently, the entire property is not registered in the Land Record. The land ownership document is a court judgement, and the apartment ownership documents are notarised sales contracts.

The building, consisting of six floors and constructed before the year 2000, designated the ground floor for commercial shops, and five residential floors housing a total of 15 apartments, of which only five were inhabited. Prior to evacuation, these five apartments were occupied by three displaced families renting, and two families owning their apartments. The remaining apartments, most in need of rehabilitation and lacking doors and windows, were unoccupied, with their owners forcibly displaced to opposition areas in northwest Syria.

A correspondent for The Syria Report stated that the city council forced the residents to evacuate the building within a few hours following the issuance of the second public safety committee report in February 2024. The report had warned the residents of the necessity to leave due to the danger of remaining in the building and the need for its demolition. However, the residents resisted leaving the building and refused to evacuate before receiving a promise from the city council to secure alternative housing for them or to include their names on the lists issued by the Aleppo governorate for those eligible for support from the National Fund for Earthquake Victims, established by Legislative Decree No. 7 of 2023.

To resolve the standoff, the council enlisted a patrol from the law enforcement forces to evacuate the residents. After being evicted, the residents were forced to displace and search for affordable housing for rent in the informal Karm Homad neighbourhood nearby. Within hours after the evacuation, a city council workshop demolished the building using heavy machinery, including bulldozers and trucks, after the neighbouring buildings were evacuated as a precaution. The head of the council, Maad Madlaji, oversaw the evacuation and demolition operations. As with the majority of buildings that were demolished after the earthquake, the rubble from the Ferdous building was transported to the rubble recycling station in Sheikh Said.

It remains unclear why the city council did not inform those residents about the soon-to-be-added “Category C” of those eligible for support from the National Fund for Earthquake Victims. This category includes owners of properties that were demolished after the earthquake, or will be demolished, through decisions from the public safety committees due to the structural unsafety of these properties and the impossibility of reinforcing them. “Category C” is supposed to include owners of licensed properties located in zoned areas, those unlicensed in zoned areas, or those unlicensed in unzoned areas. Categories A and B include owners of buildings that collapsed during the quake of February 2023. This means that the residents of the Ferdous building qualify for support within this category. According to our correspondent, no one from the city council or the governorate has informed the residents about the possibility of being included in this support.

A large part of the Ferdous neighbourhood is an informal area that saw significant expansion during the 1990s. It is characterised by high population and building density, narrow streets, and is inhabited by families from Aleppo and migrants from the rural areas around the city. The area is geographically connected to other informal neighbourhoods like Karm Homad, Al-Saliheen, Al-Marjeh, Al-Maadi, Jisr Al-Haj, and Al-Mashhad.

Between 2012 and 2016, the armed opposition controlled the neighbourhood and the wider eastern Aleppo. As a result, the area was subjected to intense shelling, aerial bombings with barrel bombs dropped from helicopters, and missiles from warplanes. This caused direct visible damage to homes and also indirect damage to buildings in the informal areas, which already suffered from weak reinforcement and support, amidst the absence of engineering studies for building, soil, and foundations.

In 2016, regime forces regained control of the Ferdous neighbourhood and all of eastern Aleppo, leading to the forced displacement of most of its inhabitants. Afterwards, the Baqir Brigade and other Shiite factions affiliated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard took control of Ferdous. Since 2016, many residents of the Ferdous neighbourhood have returned to their homes, but extensive security detention campaigns carried out by the Baqir Brigade targeted anyone suspected of opposing the regime among the returnees, prompting them to leave again between 2017 and 2018 to opposition-controlled areas in the northwest or the northeast where the Syrian Democratic Forces hold power. A significant number of these people sold their homes in Ferdous at low prices.

The Ferdous district has experienced successive building collapses since 2016, the most recent of which occurred on September 7, 2022, when a five-storey building collapsed, killing 13 people, including women and children from two families.

The Ansari Al-Gharbi Informal Settlement in Aleppo

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Unlike most of Aleppo’s informal settlements, which are located in the city’s eastern neighbourhoods, the Ansari Al-Gharbi slum is situated in the southwest of the city, connecting to its eastern neighbourhoods in Al-Karroum area to the south. This informal settlement also links what was formerly known as the Ansari village with the neighbourhoods of SalahEddin, Seif Al-Dawla, and Al-Zabdiyah in Aleppo.

Regime forces used Ansari Al-Gharbi as a gathering area for eastern Aleppo inhabitants before their forced displacement at the beginning of 2016. In this article, urban expert Dr Main Kafa details the history of this area and its most prominent features.

Originally, most of the informal settlement’s lands were private agricultural properties where construction was prohibited, except for two properties covering about six percent of the entire area. One property belongs to the Ministry of Awqaf (endowments) and the other to the Aleppo municipality, used as a landfill.

In the early 1970s, some construction contractors started buying land in the area and subdividing it into plots for unauthorised construction. The contractors planned and zoned the area, carving out streets 6-8 metres wide in some parts and narrower in others. By 1973, the built-up area in Ansari Al-Gharbi covered 6.7 hectares, and by 1980, it reached around 35 hectares, according to a Ph.D. thesis by Salwa Sakal from the University of Paris VII in 1984.

The contractors built multi-storey buildings, some reaching up to seven floors, each containing multiple apartments ranging from 60-150 square metres. Few buildings consisted of only one or two storeys. The neighbourhood’s inhabitants are a mix of people from different regions, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds, mostly from the rural areas of Aleppo, Raqqa and Idlib.

In 2006, the Aleppo City Council tasked the Engineering Unit at the Faculty of Architecture in Aleppo University to conduct an updated study of the area to address what it described as “collective residential violations” through the implementation of the Building Violations Law No. 1 of 2003, which was in force at the time. The latest Building Violations Law No. 40 of 2012 repealed Building Violations Law No. 59 of 2008, which in turn had repealed Law No. 1 of 2003.

The study, completed in 2009, found that the area covered about 134 hectares, inhabited by approximately 54,000 people, resulting in a high population density of 403 individuals per hectare. According to the study, 10 percent of the inhabitants are renters under lease agreements, most of which are not registered with the municipality to evade taxes. Meanwhile, 90 percent of the inhabitants own their homes, the majority of which are apartments in unlicensed buildings.

Most of the ownership documents held by residents are purchase contracts, irrevocable powers of attorney, financial records, lawsuit notices, water and electricity bills, occupancy statements, or a copy of the Provisional land Register and property registration statement. The possession of official documents by some residents, such as those issued by the Provisional land Register or a property registration statement, suggests that some buildings, especially those extending from the SalahEddin neighbourhood, are licensed constructions, albeit with building violations related to the number of floors.

The study proposed widening streets to a width of 12 metres on one side, merging smaller plots, securing services, and demolishing unlicensed buildings in various locations to ensure sunlight and ventilation in the planning of residential complexes and neighbourhoods. It also suggested unifying the building code system in the area by adopting a five-floor limit for each building and demolishing additional floors, along with implementing three setbacks at a distance of six metres each, (a setback is the required separation between a lot line and a building).

The study was not ratified until 2013, due to delays in bureaucratic procedures and interventions by security agencies. Conflicts of interest among some officials, who purchased properties in the area intending to benefit from them after learning about the study’s content and proposed solutions, also contributed to the delay in ratification.

Before the ratification of the study, in 2012, Ansari Al-Gharbi fell under the control of armed opposition forces. This led the regime forces to bombard it causing widespread destruction, significant human losses, and waves of displacement. With the Russian military intervention in 2015, the area was subjected to intense aerial bombardment until 2016, culminating in a ceasefire agreement and the forced displacement of all inhabitants, including those from Ansari Al-Gharbi.

In mid-2017, the regime forces’ checkpoints surrounding the area allowed some displaced individuals to return to Ansari Al-Gharbi, while the local municipality used bulldozers to open up some streets and remove rubble. Overall, it is estimated that the war and the bulldozing operations in Ansari Al-Gharbi resulted in the destruction of about 40 percent of the total housing stock.

In 2019, the Ansari Services Directorate, affiliated with the Aleppo City Council, launched a cleaning campaign in the neighbourhood in cooperation with the Central Services Directorate and the neighbourhood’s residents’ committee. This campaign covered the main streets and their side alleys. The residents’ committee was formed in accordance with Local Administration Law No. 107 of 2011, led by the mukhtar and members selected by the Executive Office from the neighbourhood’s permanent residents.

In 2019, new unauthorised constructions appeared in the neighbourhood after government officials and officers from the security and military forces controlling the area seized homes, buildings, and lands owned by those who were forcibly displaced or had fled. These individuals, without permits, built additional floors on these seized properties, expanded constructions at the expense of neighbouring spaces, or dug and constructed underground floors. They also took over lands that had buildings demolished by the city council as being structurally unsound, where contractors then erected new unauthorised buildings.

The earthquake on February 6, 2023 resulted in the collapse of many structurally unsound and damaged buildings in the slum, due to the indirect damage from previous bombardments by regime forces and their allies. In September 2023, the Aleppo Governorate issued the third table listing the names of those affected whose residential and commercial buildings and properties were demolished due to the earthquake in the Ansari area. According to the table, the number of demolished plots in Ansari Al-Gharbi totaled 1,081. A plot refers to a piece of land on which a building consisting of one or several floors is erected. The damage to these plots was total, rendering the buildings uninhabitable.

The governorate issued these tables based on the provisions of Legislative Decree No. 3 of 2023 and its implementing instructions, which relate to granting special exemptions and a package of facilities to those affected by the earthquake. This was in accordance with the minutes of the committee formed by the decision of the Minister of Local Administration and Environment No. 554 dated March 20, 2023, chaired by the Governor of Aleppo and ratified by the Minister of Local Administration and Environment.

 

Explained: Real Estate Development in Aleppo’s Al-Haydariyeh Informal Settlement

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Al-Haydariyeh is among the largest informal settlements in Aleppo and was declared a real estate development zone in 2011. The area saw widespread devastation during the war, forcing its residents into displacement. And though the Aleppo City Council hoped Al-Haydariyeh real estate development project could serve as a model for reconstruction in other east Aleppo neighbourhoods, the project still needs to be completed. 

The Al-Haydariyeh settlement began to develop in the early 1970s to the northeast of Aleppo, outside its official zoning plan. Initially, the land at Al-Haydariyeh was private, undivided and collectively owned; it was used for pastures and agriculture, while construction was prohibited. Some landowners have ownership documents in the form of a “green agricultural tabu” (a record dating back to the Ottoman era). Others have court judgments confirming the legitimacy of their purchases of undivided shares.

Some people built unlicensed homes on these lands, and some sold their land shares to contractors who built unlicensed houses that they sold to migrants from northern and eastern Syria. Over time, various informal neighbourhoods emerged in Al-Haydariyeh, often named after the resident ethnic communities, including Kurds, Turkmen, Assyrians and Arabs.

In the late 1970s, the state appropriated a large area of Al-Haydariyeh to construct social housing projects, a park, and a school. It issued its final expropriation order, No. 2280, in December 1982. However, some building contractors and members of the security forces seized parts of the confiscated land. They divided the land into smaller plots and sold them as sites prepared for unlicensed construction. As a result, some neighbourhoods emerged, named after the entities that took over the land, such as the “Intelligence Neighbourhood” and the “Theft Neighbourhood.”

The Aleppo municipality later expropriated the remaining land in Al-Haydariyeh. It allocated it for social housing programmes, which are implemented by public institutions affiliated with the Ministry of Public Works and Housing. The city council zoned this area via Decision No. 2426 in 1990. It is divided into 325 plots prepared for construction, each measuring 120 square metres. These plots were set aside for residents who had been given notices to demolish their unlicensed homes in the neighbouring Al-Masharqeh neighbourhood. Residents who were allocated these plots paid for them in instalments over 15 years. This section of land became known as the “40 Notices” district, named for the demolition notices. Most buildings here were licensed and consisted of two storeys, while a minority, which violated regulations, consisted of three. The district was provided with a water and sanitation network funded by its residents. Still, implementation was very ineffecient and poor, leaving some residents reliant on purchasing water tanks. All houses were connected to the electricity network and had usage meters, although unauthorized electricity tapping was common.

Since 2002, the Aleppo municipality began issuing eviction warnings to the “Theft Neighbourhood” residents. It promised to provide them with alternative housing (which they would be expected to pay for) as part of youth housing projects, a segment of Syria’s social housing programmes. Announcements were also made about launching these programmes in other parts of Aleppo.

In 2004, the Aleppo City Council annexed Al-Haydariyeh into the zoning plan issued that same year. The following year, the council commissioned the Faculty of Architectural Engineering engineering unit at the University of Aleppo to prepare a detailed zoning plan for the district, which, at that time, was estimated by the council to have around 32,000 inhabitants. The engineering unit completed the plan in 2006, amending the zoning plan for the “40 Notices” district and removing the park and small squares within it. However, this second plan was not ratified and remained unimplemented.

In 2010, the Aleppo Governorate Council subjected Al-Haydariyeh district to Real Estate Development and Investment Law No. 15 of 2008, marking it as the first district in Aleppo to which this law was applied. The Council of Ministers approved the decision a year later, establishing two real estate development zones in Aleppo. These zones aimed to redevelop areas containing mass unlicensed construction located in Al-Haydariyeh and nearby Tal al-Zarazir.

According to Law No. 15 of 2008 (which was later repealed by Law No. 2 of 2023, also amending Investment Law No. 18 of 2021), a real estate development zone can include properties within or outside a given zoning plan. These properties could be secured either from state assets, from assets of the administrative unit, from assets owned by development companies, or from private properties. The executive instructions for Law No. 15, issued by the Prime Minister under Decision No. 5410 in 2009, said that informal settlements could be treated as real estate development zones, regardless of their size, based on a justification memo and with approval from the Presidency of the Council of Ministers.

Announcing Al-Haydariyeh as a real estate development zone allowed the city council to seize properties and assets in the district. This gave the implementing authorities all the necessary powers and rights to take over and demolish those properties. A real estate development programme was then approved for Al-Haydariyeh, covering an area of 118 hectares. Of this, 42.12 percent was allocated for residential plots, green spaces and public areas, while 12.27 percent was allocated for public services.

This development aimed to construct 10,000 housing units through a partnership between the Aleppo City Council and real estate developers. The council divided the real estate development project in Al-Haydariyeh into three zones or phases, A, B and C, to facilitate the work for real estate development companies. The first phase spanned an area of 28.8 hectares, encompassing 2,700 residential apartments. The General Company for Engineering Studies (GCES) completed the studies and plans for the project’s general infrastructure. Meanwhile, the Military Housing Establishment (MHE) implemented significant portions of the infrastructure for the first and second phases of the project, such as the road network and the sanitation system.

Like other parts of east Aleppo, Al-Haydariyeh was under rebel control in 2012-2016. During this period, it suffered heavy bombardment and a suffocating siege by regime forces. With the Russian military intervention in 2015, the area endured aerial and artillery assaults, causing extensive damage. This pushed the opposition to surrender and accept forced displacement from the site in 2016. Since then, only a limited number of residents have returned to Al-Haydariyeh.

The Aleppo municipality started a demolition campaign in Al-Haydariyeh in 2018 in collaboration with the Ministry of Defense, citing the presence of mines in some buildings. In 2019, the city council started applying Urban Planning and Construction Law No. 23 of 2015 to Al-Haydariyeh, designating it as an area containing mass unlicensed construction. The site was then expropriated under the Expropriation Law No. 20 of 1983. Law No. 23 allows for the issuance of regulatory plans for a specific area, irrespective of the existence of public or private implementing agencies, without a specific timeframe for completion, no minimum ownership by administrative entities, and no specified minimum area requirement.

In 2020, the Aleppo City Council demolished and cleared homes within the executive plan for the Al-Haydariyeh development project. With that, the area was ready to be presented for investment in partnership with the General Authority for Real Estate Development and Investment. For projects within informal settlements like Al-Haydariyeh, the real estate developer is assumed responsible for providing alternative, paid housing for the area’s occupants or compensating them financially. In turn, the administrative entity must evacuate the occupants after handing them alternative housing and deliver the project site free of encroachments to the real estate developer.

One of the main concerns surrounding the land and property rights of former Al-Haydariyeh residents is that the real estate development project includes a social survey of the area’s inhabitants. However, given that all residents were displaced, it remains unclear how this survey will be conducted. A social survey typically solidifies compensation rights for residents present during the survey. Some local sources have suggested that people close to the authorities recently returned and resettled in the district based on security clearances. The Aleppo City Council has not listed any names of rights holders in the neighbourhood. 

How One Man Lost His Land and House in Basilia City

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In early 2011, Ibrahim bought a small piece of land in the Bayader Nader informal settlement near Kafr Sousseh in Damascus. He built a small unlicensed house on the land, but was forced to flee the city because of his political activities against the regime. While he was gone, someone else seized his house and sold it. Then, the entire area became subject to rezoning as part of the second zoned real estate area in Damascus, established via Decree No. 66 of 2012. This area would come to be known as Basilia City. Ibrahim lost his house, and it is now difficult for him to claim his rights as laid out in Decree No. 66.

Ibrahim is originally from Deir-ez-Zor, and the 95-square-metre piece of land he bought in Bayader Nader was worth SYP 45,000 (about USD 1,000 in 2011). As with all informal settlements built on private agricultural land, construction is technically illegal — that meant Ibrahim had actually just purchased a share of the original agricultural property. This made Ibrahim merely one among dozens of shared owners of the property, most of whom were also from Deir-ez-Zor. Common ownership means there are two or more owners of one property — their individual shares are not subdivided, which makes them shared owners of a single piece of real estate. Agricultural lands like the one Ibrahim built his home on cannot be subdivided, nor the common property can be terminated. The only proof of ownership in such cases is through a notarised sales contract that specifies which share the buyer now owns. It may also include a statement specifying the location of the land, and a description of the property if there has been construction. In all cases, buildings constructed on lands that were sold in this manner, as well as sales of such buildings, are not formally recorded in the Land Registry. 

The original owner of Ibrahim’s land comes from a family that works in contracting, construction and real estate, and some of the family members have good relations with influential figures in the regime as well as Hezbollah officials. According to Ibrahim, the family utilised these relationships to solve some complex real estate issues. When the Syrian revolution began in 2011, Ibrahim decided to build on his piece of land without a construction permit. Ibrahim took advantage of the municipality’s relative laxity in halting unlicensed construction during that time and benefitted from services provided to him by the owner of the land, who is also a contractor. Within just a few months, the contractor built a one-storey house with three rooms and a salon, as well as a kitchen and bathroom. The construction costs totaled SYP 700,000, which Ibrahim paid to the contractor. He also obtained electricity and water meters for the house. 

Ibrahim’s story is not unique. During that same period, Ibrahim’s contractor built dozens of identical, unlicensed houses on small plots of land in Bayader Nader for dozens of people, most of whom were from Deir-ez-Zor like Ibrahim.

Ibrahim did not end up living in that house, as his opposition to the regime meant he had to leave Syria after he became wanted by the security services. In order to maintain the house while he was away, he leased it to someone he knew. Others from Deir-ez-Zor who had also built unlicensed houses in the area took similar measures. 

In 2012, the Decree No. 66, was issued, which stipulated establishing two zoned real estate areas within the general plans for Damascus city. One of those zones, Basilia City, had an area of 954 hectares that included the Bayader Nader informal settlement. However, implementation of that zoned real estate area did not begin immediately due to ongoing battles on the ground. 

Ibrahim’s contractor belonged at this time to the pro-regime National Defence militia and became a leader of its local group in Bayader Nader. Clashes approached the area in 2013-2014 as the opposition took control of the neighbouring Yarmouk camp and Al-Qadam areas. After making sure he was gone, the contractor evicted the tenant from Ibrahim’s house then leased it instead to one of his own acquaintances, taking advantage of the general chaos in the area. He did the same with other absentees for whom he had built previously unlicensed houses in Bayader Nader, by extorting its occupants and then leasing them to other people. 

Ibrahim, who could not return to Syria, nevertheless discovered by chance in 2015, that someone from Idlib governorate had bought his house. When one of Ibrahim’s relatives visited the house, the occupant showed that they had a sales contract from the contractor, who was also the original owner of the agricultural land. 

Because Ibrahim’s ownership is technically just a share on a commonly owned, non-subdivided property, it could be located anywhere on the original plot of land. This means that the extorter — in this case the contractor — can sell the same property over and over, so long as the sales contracts are not recorded in the Land Registry, and so long as owners like Ibrahim are unable to return and prove their ownership via the judiciary. 

With the return of relative stability to the area, and after regime forces retook control in 2018, the Damascus governorate began work on the Basilia City project. This included preparation of large parcels of land, including parts of Bayader Nader, whose residents were evicted. 

Under Decree No. 66 and the subsequent Law No. 10 of 2018 that amended it, real estate properties in Basilia City are distributed to rights holders after zoning via shares, according to the results of the work of the inventory and Description Committee. Those who owned agricultural land within the area and didn’t construct anything on it can receive financial compensation, to be set by the governorate, and this was the case of Ibrahim.

Ibrahim, was unable to find out what happened to his house, and whether it had been evacuated and removed, or it was still standing and being rented to strangers. His name was on a list for those entitled to receive only financial compensation — this is because he was a joint owner of a share of agricultural land before the zoning process. And because Ibrahim is wanted by the security services, he is afraid to return to Syria in order to claim his rights and prove via the judiciary that he owned an unlicensed house, a process that could allow him to obtain organisational shares in Basilia City. 

Under Decree No. 66 the occupants of their own properties in the area before the zoning process can obtain these shares as well as the right to apply for alternative housing, albeit at their own expense. However, those who only owned their real estate without living on it are only entitled to organisational shares. Those who were occupants but did not own the real estate can apply for alternative housing.

Explained: Law No. 33 and Documenting Real Estate Ownership in Informal settlements

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Law No. 33 of 2008 on Documenting Ownership of Built Real Estate and Parts of Unbuilt Real Estate was issued to resolve ownership issues related to unlicensed construction and real estate subdivision in informal settlements. Law No. 33 aims to establish and record these properties within the Land Registry according to their reality on the ground, under certain conditions. 

Implementing this law could have resolved many of the problems residents of these areas face, by terminating common property ownership, subdividing and recording them in the Land Registry in a manner that would ensure the property rights of their owners. However, for unknown reasons, this law was ignored and never implemented, despite remaining in force to this day. 

Law No. 33 does not deal with informal settlements built on public property, but rather informal settlements built on agricultural lands that are not allowed to be built on. Therefore, we find in the law many references to the Minister of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform.

Under Law No. 33, formally documenting a real estate property in an informal settlement requires the following steps: subdivision, termination of common property and correction of the property description. 

Subdivision, or ifraz, is a technical procedure carried out by the Land Registry at the request of the owner, in order to divide the property into separate and independent pieces of real estate. This process takes place with the understanding that the property was commonly owned and that the owners agreed to divide and apportion it. 

Termination of common property is the process of dividing commonly owned assets, such as land or real estate, between several individuals, via an agreement between those participating in the process by mutual consent. If there is no such agreement, termination occurs via a court ruling or sale. The proceeds are then distributed to the participants according to their shares in the property. 

Finally, the process of correcting a property’s description is an administrative task carried out by the Land Registry at the request of the property owner. This process is meant to create consistency between conditions on the ground and the property’s description as recorded on its Land Record. For example, in some cases a property may be described in the Land Record as agricultural land, when in fact it is a two-storey building. 

The areas to be covered by Law No. 33 are meant to be determined via decree from the prime minister, based on proposals from the minister of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform and the minister of Local Administration and Environment. 

The area to which Law No. 33 may be applied may not be less than two hectares if located within an approved zoning plan, and five hectares if located outside such a plan. In addition, areas that have been expropriated by a public entity or established via decree as development zones may not qualify for Law No. 33.

The administrative unit in charge where such an area is located must prepare plans showing the external borders of the area as well as the numbers of the real estate properties requested for subdivision, termination of common ownership and correction of description. 

For a piece of land to benefit from Law No. 33, it must have undergone delimitation and census and must have been documented in the Land Registry. At least 50 percent of the total area of the properties must have been built upon. 

The Judicial Committee

Law No. 33 requires all courts in the area undergoing this process to stop hearing real estate cases for that area and refer them to a body called the Judicial Committee. The Land Registry’s real estate documentation office must mark the real estate records for a property undergoing this process with a note that it is subject to the provisions of the law on subdivision, common ownership termination and correction of description. In accordance with this note, the real estate documentation office then halts implementation of all decrees and transactions for that property until those three processes are complete. 

The minister of agriculture is meant to form this judicial committee headed by a real estate judge. Members of the committee include the head of the relevant governorate’s Directorate of Cadastral Affairs, the head of the governorate’s Survey Directorate, a first-degree technical representative from the governorate and an expert from that governorate appointed by the governor. The head of this committee is tasked with subdividing the state’s share of real estate properties in which the state is a common owner, ensuring the state’s rights and interests, changing the legal category of such real estate from Amiri lands to Freehold Properties “mulk” and liquidating any inheritance transactions in that area. 

As for the committee itself, it is tasked with deciding on requests sent in by stakeholders related to their rights, judging in cases referred to them by the courts and implementing decisions to establish and register ownership. 

The committee’s decisions can be appealed before the District Court of Appeals within a one-month period. Committee decisions include a table showing the names of real estate rights holders in the area, as well as the estimated values of their shares and real estate numbers. 

Under Law No. 33, those claiming a right to a piece of real estate may, after the one-month period expires, file a lawsuit before the courts within two years in order to claim compensation against the individual in whose interest the property registration was made. Law No. 33 stipulates six months to three years imprisonment and a fine for whoever files such a claim with forged documents. 

The executive instructions for Law No. 33 state that, one month after the committee announces its list of decisions, it should refer the documents it has on hand to the Directorate of Cadastral Affairs. These documents include those related to subdivision, termination of common property, the judicial and detailed zoning plan files, as well as any records of implementing the committee’s decisions. 

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