Property auctions will not resume in the greater Athens area – and the Aegean islands – until at least Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2018 – following yet another decision by associations representing notaries in the specific areas to abstain from the process.
The decision affects the next three Wednesday, when such auctions are usually held in local courts (Eirinodikia).
Preventing the holding of auctions in the still bailout-dependent country has emerged as the latest high-profile “anti-capitalist” and “anti-austerity” cause célèbre by various far-left groups and political formations, whereas resuming such auctions remains a standing obligation that the current leftist-rightist coalition government has undertaken vis-a-vis Greece’s institutional creditors. Property auctions at local courts in the greater Athens area have often been blocked by protesters, while on other occasions notaries’ associations call on members to abstain, citing a lack of security for their members.
Notaries, who in Greece are law school graduates specializing in drawing up contracts and maintaining registers of property transactions, must be present at an auction for the latter to be valid.
The decision does not involve electronic auctions, where notaries are free to participate.
Creditors, the ECB and local lenders have long complained that an official or unofficial moratorium on property auctions involving real estate foreclosed by banks, the state and local governments aggravates the already massive load of “bad debt” held by Greek banks.
