Judicial auctions

1. Notification and pricing of sales of seized assets

Tangible and intangible assets subject to recovery are sold by a judicial officer. Both tangible and intangible assets are valued by a judicial officer to determine the forced sale value of the assets. The party seeking enforcement or the debtor may ask the court official to hire an expert to re-value the assets.

The Law on civil procedure regulates the announcement of an auction of immovable property, providing for a procedure whereby an auction must be announced at least one month prior to the auction. At the request of the party seeking enforcement the auction may be announced at least two months prior to the auction, but no later than one month prior to the auction. The information to be included in the notice of auction of immovable property is listed in Article 606(3) of the Law on civil procedure. The notice of auction is published by the judicial officer in Latvijas Vēstnesis (the Official Gazette) and posted on the electronic auctions website.

The auction begins at the forced sale price indicated in the assessment of the immovable property. Where two evaluations have been made, the auction begins at the higher valuation of the immovable property. The judicial officer determines the auction increment, which is not less than one percent and no more than 10 percent of the starting price for the property auction.

2. Third parties that may make a sale

Movable and immovable assets subject to recovery proceedings are sold by judicial officers. The property of an insolvent debtor is sold at auction in accordance with Chapter XX of the Law on insolvency, the sale being carried out by the insolvency administrator.

3. Types of auction to which the provisions might not fully apply

In Latvian enforcement proceedings there are no types of auctions to which the aforementioned provisions apply in part only. However, there may be some differences in the conditions governing the organisation of auctions that arise from items of special legislation.

4. Information on State registers of assets

The Land register - the State Unified Computerised Land Register records immovable property and related rights. Searches may be carried out in the computerised land register using the property’s cadastral number, the land registry number, title or address.

The Cadastre - the Cadastre Information System of the State Land Service is a unified recording system that provides access to the latest information on immovable property located in the Republic of Latvia and the land units, structures, groups of premises and sections of land that make up the immovable property in question, plus the cadastral value. The Cadastre can also be used to obtain information on the ownership of immovable property, where the owner, legal holder or user is a legal person (title, registration number, address).

The commercial register records the information required by law on commercial operators and commercial activities. A commercial operator is a natural person (individual trader) or commercial company (partnership or limited liability company) as registered in the commercial register. Commercial activity is open economic activity conducted in one’s own name for profit.

Commercial pledge agreements are registered in the register of commercial pledges. In accordance with the Law on commercial pledges, a commercial pledge is a right of pledge registered in the register of commercial pledges in accordance with the procedure set out in that law. The subject of a commercial pledge may be movable tangible or intangible assets belonging to a commercial operator, or all of their assets, i.e. a commercial operator’s entire possessions.

The register of matrimonial property - the register of matrimonial property records contracts of marriage entered into between a man and a woman. A contract of marriage is a legal transaction, or a special type of contract, in which the parties (spouses) establish, amend or terminate their matrimonial property regime by exercising their rights and the possibilities conferred upon them by law to determine their property regime themselves.

Database of the Road Traffic Safety Directorate: information on vehicles registered in Latvia, general information on vehicles registered abroad (Denmark, France, Estonia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, Belgium, Slovenia and Norway), as well as vehicle mileage information in the Netherlands, Estonia or Slovakia if the vehicle was previously registered in one of these countries.

5. Information on databases to allow creditors to identify debtor assets or claims

Most of the information was previously available in national registers and is fully or partly public. To conduct a search, individuals may need to identify themselves using eID or via the intermediary of a bank. A fee may be payable for certain searches.

6. Online information on judicial auctions

The electronic auction site is a module in the Register of enforcement cases that allows auction notices to be posted, auction participants to be registered, information on registered auction participants to be stored and registered auction participants to participate in the announced auction, and also provides a technological toolkit for making and registering bids.

The rules of the electronic auction site lay down the procedure for working with the electronic auction site and the procedure for the inclusion of personal data in the register of auction participants, the amount of data that may be included, and the procedure for updating and deleting such data.

A certified judicial officer or administrator of insolvency proceedings uses the electronic auction site to post auction notices in accordance with the requirements laid down in the Law on civil procedure regarding the contents of auction notices. Once an announcement has been sent for publication, no announcement may be published for the auction of the same immovable or movable assets in another set of recovery or insolvency proceedings until the announced auction has been completed.