When a plot is sold on a public auction and there is a building in it, the latter is deemed sold along with the plot only when explicitly enlisted in the assignment decree according to the interpretative decision of the Supreme Court of Cassation i
ssued in May 2017
On 18 May 2017, the Supreme Court of Cassation issued a binding interpretation on the application of Art. 92 of the Ownership Act rule (the improvements-follow-the plot rule) in case of a public auction where the ‘improvement’ is a building, which is not explicitly listed in the assignment decree of the enforcement agent.
Until now, certain court decisions have ruled that the title transfer pertains only to the real estate, which has been subject to inventory and assessment by the enforcement agent and is, respectively, described in detail in the assignment decree; thus, if there is a building in the real estate and it has not been explicitly listed in the assignment decree, such building cannot be deemed included in the title transfer. In other court decisions, the judges have assumed that the building in a real estate, which is subject to a public auction, is to be deemed transferred with the said real estate even when not explicitly listed in the assignment decree by operation of the rule of in Art. 92 of the Ownership Act (i.e. that all improvements, permanently fixed to a real estate, are to be deemed transferred with it).
The interpretative decision of the Supreme Court of Cassation sides with the former reasoning. It assumes that the building is a separate object of property rights (by operation of law as soon as its rough construction stage is completed) and therefore constitutes an exception of the improvements-follow-the plot rule.
Still, with the respect to the auxiliary constructions on the plot, permanently fixed on it, the rule of Art. 92 of the Ownership Act continues to apply (i.e. they are deemed transferred together with the real estate even if not explicitly listed in the assignment decree).
