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Certified Haitian Property Deed Translation
Certified translation of the documents that record the ownership of land and buildings in Haiti, including the registry annotations and endorsements that carry the legal effect and that a reader unfamiliar with the system will otherwise skip.
$24.95/page
Flat rate per page, up to 250 words. No hidden fees.
100% USCIS acceptance
Every certified translation is guaranteed to be accepted by USCIS.
24-hour delivery
Most 1-3 page documents are delivered within 24 hours. Same-day available.
There is no functioning central registry
Haiti has no reliable national land register. Title rests on a chain of notarial acts held by individual notaries, arpenteur (surveyor) documents, and tax records at the DGI, and the 2010 earthquake destroyed a great deal of what existed.
So a Haitian property file is a bundle of instruments rather than one certificate, and that is the normal state of affairs rather than a deficiency in the client's paperwork.
The arpenteur, and the procès-verbal
The arpenteur-géomètre is a sworn official whose procès-verbal d'arpentage describes and demarcates the parcel, and it is central to Haitian title in a way a US reader would not expect of a survey.
The surveyor's document, with the boundaries and adjoining owners, is frequently the strongest evidence in the file. We translate it in full.
Inheritance, and undivided shares
Haitian land is very commonly held in indivision among the descendants of an owner who died generations ago, with no partition ever performed.
A seller may therefore hold a fraction and be unable to convey the whole, and the file will hold acts de notoriété establishing the heirs. We translate those with the deed.
French, and the state land question
Acts are in French even where the parties speak Haitian Creole, and a meaningful share of land is domaine privé de l'État leased rather than owned, with an affermage document instead of a deed.
We name the tenure as it is. See our French and Haitian Creole pages.
Ordering, and what the certification covers
Upload the document, choose certified translation at $24.95 per page of up to 250 words, and it comes back typically within 24 hours as a PDF formatted to mirror the original, with a signed certificate of translation accuracy on letterhead. Marginal annotations are translated in place, in the margin, and every seal, stamp and registry endorsement is translated with the text. See how we translate and certified versus standard.
Frequently asked questions
Why is there no title certificate?
Haiti has no reliable central register. Title rests on notarial acts, surveys and tax records.
What is a procès-verbal d'arpentage?
The sworn surveyor's demarcation of the parcel. Frequently the strongest evidence in the file.
Why does the seller own only a fraction?
Land is commonly held in indivision among descendants with no partition ever performed.
What is affermage?
A lease of state-owned land. Not ownership, and the document is not a deed.
Ready to get started?
Upload the document and receive the certified translation, typically within 24 hours.