Handing over the keys to your Marrakech villa

A villa or a riad in Marrakech is never empty. Someone waters the garden, opens the shutters, reads a meter, watches a leak, lets a craftsman in. So the owner living three thousand kilometres away does not ask first what a concierge company costs — they ask who that person in their house is, who pays them, and what happens the day something goes wrong.

The question sounds vague. It is far less so than it appears: Moroccan law settles the essentials, and the rest comes down to a handful of documents drawn up once and for all. Here is what to know before handing over a set of keys — who legally employs the staff of a villa or a riad, what a lawful contract contains, how spending stays traceable from abroad, and what an insurance policy actually covers.

Who employs the caretaker and the housekeeper of a Marrakech villa?

The owner, as a general rule, and the Moroccan text is explicit on the point. Law no. 19-12, promulgated by dahir no. 1-16-121 of 10 August 2016 and published in the Bulletin officiel no. 6610 of 5 October 2017, defines the employer in its opening article as “any natural person who hires the services of a domestic worker”. A concierge company is a legal person: under that text, it cannot be the employer of a villa’s household staff.

Article 2 lists the work covered, and house guarding, gardening, driving and household tasks are all expressly named. Only three arrangements are therefore possible, and the management contract is better for stating which one applies, person by person.

It is the real arrangement that determines the applicable text, never the heading on the management contract. A firm that writes “we provide staff” without saying under which regime leaves the whole question open.

Does a villa let to travellers fall under the same regime?

This is the one question in the file we will not settle in an article. The opening article of law 19-12 defines domestic work as “work carried out for one or more families”. A villa run as a short-term let houses no employing family but a succession of guests: the characterisation may then shift to the Labour Code, law no. 65-99, with different obligations on working hours, leave and severance.

The same house may in fact fall under both regimes depending on the month, where the owner occupies it part of the year. So we have each situation characterised by a lawyer of the Marrakech bar before fixing anything, and we ask for the answer to appear in writing in the contract. That is fifteen minutes of legal advice, and it is what avoids a reclassification later on.

What must a lawful domestic employment contract contain in Morocco?

Three cumulative conditions, and the third is the one people forget. Article 3 of law 19-12 requires a written contract, drawn up on the model set by regulation — decree no. 2-17-355 of 31 August 2017 — in three copies whose signatures are certified by the competent authority.

The text sets out where each copy goes: the employer “gives one copy of the contract to the domestic worker, keeps one, and files the third copy, against a receipt, with the competent labour inspectorate”. It is that filing receipt which serves as proof, not the signed contract. A breach of article 3 carries a fine of 3,000 to 5,000 dirhams (article 24). The same article provides that a labour inspector finding a clause contrary to the law draws both parties’ attention to it so that they revise the contract.

What minimum wage applies to the staff of a villa?

Sixty per cent of the SMIG, and nothing may be set off against that sum. Article 19 of law 19-12 provides that the cash wage “may not be lower than 60 per cent of the statutory minimum wage applicable in industry, commerce and the liberal professions”, then adds that “benefits in food and accommodation may under no circumstances be treated as components of the cash wage”.

The hourly SMIG rose to 17.92 dirhams on 1 January 2026, that is 3,422.72 dirhams a month on the statutory basis of 191 hours (recorded on 14/08/2026, Audinex publication citing decree no. 2.25.983). The floor for a domestic wage therefore stands at 2,053.63 dirhams a month — a calculation, not a figure published as such. A caretaker housed on site cannot be paid less on the grounds that he is housed: that is the most common error in arrangements inherited from the seller at the time of purchase.

The other numerical obligations of law 19-12

Six rules, all enforceable and all sanctioned. Working time is set at 48 hours a week (article 13). Weekly rest is at least 24 continuous hours, deferrable within a period not exceeding three months (article 14). Annual leave accrues after six months of continuous service, at the rate of one and a half working days a month (article 16).

The probationary period of an open-ended contract is fifteen paid days (article 8). The certificate of employment is issued within a maximum of eight days after the contract ends (article 10). The minimum age of admission to employment is 18 (article 6).

A breach of working time, rest, annual leave or payment of wages carries a fine of 500 to 1,200 dirhams (article 25). Article 26 further brings domestic workers within the social security regime.

How does spending on a property stay traceable from abroad?

Through a written authorisation threshold, not through a monthly report. The distinction is the whole question: the report records, the threshold decides. A statement arriving at month end tells the owner about money already spent; what protects them is the line agreed in advance, above which nothing is committed without their written approval.

On the Marrakech market, the promise of “detailed” or “regular” reporting has become commonplace, but few firms publish a figure: as recorded on 14/08/2026, Hostoria states “Devis envoyé avant tout chantier > 100 dh” — a quote sent before any works above 100 dirhams — and that is about the only figure to be found online. Three elements are enough to frame the subject: the threshold, the list of supporting documents expected for each job — invoice in the supplier’s name, date, reason, photograph — and an annual budget approved in advance for recurring items.

What should a monthly management statement contain?

Seven lines, and they read in two minutes. A statement that is useful to a non-resident owner starts by separating three amounts that a badly built document merges into one: gross income received by booking channel, the commissions taken by the platforms, and the provider’s own commission. It then breaks down spending item by item, each backed by its supporting document — water, electricity, internet, laundry, consumables, technical work.

It gives the occupancy rate for the period, notes any incidents and what was done about them, and ends with the net balance and the transfer date. What a management commission actually covers on this market, we set out in our survey of what Marrakech concierge companies charge. A one-page statement, comparable from one month to the next and archived as it arrives, beats a dashboard nobody ever opens.

What happens in a dispute with a member of the villa’s staff?

The labour inspectorate steps in before the courts, and the law organises that stage. Article 22 of law 19-12 provides that its officers receive complaints from the domestic worker against the employer as well as from the employer against the worker, where they concern performance of the contract. The inspector summons both parties, attempts a conciliation and records it in a signed report; failing agreement, the report goes to the employee, who may then bring the matter before the competent court.

Separation follows a scale: after one year of continuous effective service, severance amounts to 96 hours of wages per year for the first five years, 144 hours from the sixth to the tenth, 192 hours from the eleventh to the fifteenth, and 240 hours beyond (article 21). For an absent owner the consequence is simple — it is the filed contract that serves as the reference in that conciliation.

Which insurance policies actually protect a villa that is let?

Three distinct covers, and none replaces another. The first is the provider’s professional liability policy, which answers for its own faults in carrying out the assignment; few firms publish the reference, and Morokeys is the exception here, displaying in its footer, as recorded on 14/08/2026, its “Assurance Responsabilité Civile n° 9605614 auprès de Allianz Maroc”.

The second is the owner’s own household policy, which must be checked for any exclusion of seasonal letting — many Moroccan contracts carry one, and it tends to be discovered after the loss. The third is the mechanism applied to guests: deposit, security bond or card pre-authorisation, sized to the value of the property. A platform guarantee replaces none of the three: it applies after the event, under conditions, and never to staff. These three covers are worth rereading at each renewal, because a change of use moves the perimeter.

What does a proper handover of keys look like?

Four written documents, all drawn up on the same day and signed on both sides. The first is the inventory of keys and codes: how many sets exist, who holds what, which digital accesses are open and in whose names. The second is the entry condition report, dated and photographed room by room, technical equipment and period features included — in a riad, the zellige and the tadelakt are described just as the boiler is. It is that document which makes a conversation possible twelve months later.

The third is the named list of people with access to the property, each with their status and their employer. The fourth is the end-of-contract clause, providing for the return of keys and the removal of digital accesses. One hour of work, once. It is also what makes a change of provider painless, as we set out in our article on switching your concierge company without losing anything.

Why trust is settled before signature

Because it cannot be declared, and it cannot be recovered. An absent owner does not judge a provider on its intentions — they judge it on the precision of what it agreed to put in writing before starting. Who employs whom, what amount triggers an approval, which policy covers what, which documents exist the day the staff changes: these questions all have a simple answer. None of them is negotiated; they are drafted.

A provider that sidesteps them does not necessarily have something to hide — more often it is used to owners who never ask. A firm that has practised in Marrakech for a long time deals with them in a single conversation, and that is the conversation we begin with, with seventeen years on the ground behind us. For who we are, our who we are page says it plainly.

About to hand over the keys to your villa or your riad? Tell us about your situation: we carry out a free, no-commitment assessment within 48 hours, and we tell you in which order to put the four documents above in place.