October 2024

Decision of the Rethymno Court of First Instance Regarding the Annulment of a Seizure Report Due to Lack of Execution Order

The Rethymno Court of First Instance has published decision no. 129/2024, which annulled the forced seizure of our client's property, imposed by a management company to satisfy a mortgage loan claim. The seizure was annulled due to procedural errors preceding its imposition, specifically for not complying with the formal requirements set forth in Article 927 of the Greek Code of Civil Procedure for issuing an execution order. According to this provision, the execution order must be given to a specific bailiff on the writ of execution by the party entitled to enforce it.

The court ruled: "Given that the execution order, based on which the forced seizure of the property was conducted, did not comply with the formal written requirements of Article 927 of the Civil Procedure Code, it is considered null and void."

The court carefully examined the execution order filed in the auction file to support its ruling. Specifically, the court found that: "The execution order was not recorded on the first enforceable copy of the payment order issued by the Single-Member Court of First Instance of Athens, nor was it attached as an inseparable document, but instead, it was recorded as a separate document. This is evident from the copies of both the first enforceable copy and the execution order submitted by the opposing party. Both documents bear the legal certification of the auction officer on their last pages, indicating that they were filed separately as independent documents. Furthermore, the placement of the legal certification on the last page of the enforceable copy suggests that the certified document ends there and that no other document follows."

Based on the above, the court concluded: "There is no valid execution order for the forced seizure of the property mentioned in report no. …, which renders the seizure report invalid, irrespective of whether the appellant suffered any harm." On the contested issue of this condition, the court noted that "the execution of acts without a valid order or without following the formal written requirement causes nullity, which, as the court deems correct, must be declared regardless of harm because it violates the principle of conducting forced execution upon the request of the parties." Furthermore, "the nullity arising from the absence of an order or the failure to comply with the required formalities cannot be rectified by subsequent approval, as the execution officers acted without authority, in violation of the system of party-driven initiation."

As previously noted (see here), Article 927 of the Civil Procedure Code states: "Forced execution is carried out under the supervision of the party entitled to enforce it, who issues the relevant order on the writ of execution to a specific bailiff and specifies the method and, if possible, the objects upon which the execution will be carried out." If there is no execution order on the writ of execution from the attorney, the seizure report is annulled. It is not just the existence of the order that matters, but that it must be placed directly on the writ of execution. Although this procedural flaw is rare, it remains a valid reason for annulling seizure reports (see e.g., MPrAth 726/2018).