OREANDA-NEWS. July 10, 2015. Dear clients and cooperation partners,

On 1 July this year, amendments to the Civil Procedure Law came into force affecting the procedure for enforcing judgments by changing the procedure for real estate auctions from auctions with physical participation to auctions in an e-environment. In insolvency proceedings, sale of real estate by e-auction will be introduced on 1 January 2016.

The purpose of introducing the e-auction is to decrease the risks that result from mutual communication between auction participants and thus to decrease dishonest or unlawful activities at real estate auctions. The new procedure is designed to ensure honest competition among bidders.

For e-auction requirements an e-auction site will be set up and available here . This site is part of the state information system Executive Register maintained by the Court Administration, and it will include auction announcements (in addition to publication in the official gazette Latvijas V?stnesis), register auction participants, authorise individual participation in an auction, as well as ensuring other operations related to organising the auction.

Following the new procedure, those who want to participate in real estate auctions organised by sworn bailiffs as of 1 July 2015 or insolvency administrators as of 1 July 2016, must register with the Auction Participant Register available at the e-auction site. It should be noted that the regulations “Regulations on E-auction Site” approved by the Cabinet of Ministers allow only natural persons to register.

To participate in a real estate auction, a person must pay security of 3% of the real estate valuation and send a request via the e-auction site for authorisation to participate at the auction.

Auction participants will be able to bid electronically as of the moment when they are authorised to participate in the auction and until the moment when  the  auction  is  closed.  Under  the  new  procedure, an e-auction takes place over 30 days instead of a specific time and place as was the case previously.

To specify the e-auction process in detail, on 16 June this year the Cabinet of Ministers accepted “Regulations on E-auction Site” setting the procedure for performing operations on the E-auction Site, as well as a procedure for including data in the Auction Participant Register about persons, the scope of data to be included, as well as a procedure for updating and deleting data.