Justice Minister, Francisco Caamaño, presented on Wednesday the new Judicial Electronic Auction Website, which allows monitoring and involvement of all citizens through the Internet, in the auction of mortgaged or seized properties.
This new system will help to avoid any unfair practices, will obtain better prices and will avoid unnecessary travel to tenderers. The website is scheduled to begin operating in November.
"This is project is important in today's Spain due to the current credit and real estate and the shortage of bidders in auctions," said Caamaño, who warned that the lack of bidders makes the award prices to increase further from their real value.
In this regard, he stressed that "the general ignorance of citizens" and the difficult access to the auctions produce "a cartel of a few", that using insider information and price-fixing do harm citizens whose properties have been seized. These are the so called "auctioneers".
The new portal will publish all auctions nationwide and citizens will be able to access information and participate in real time on accessing electronic bids by electronic ID, any electronic certificate or a name, username and password obtained in court.
Citizens will be able to monitor the auction process itself, venue, date and time of opening and closing, Court which is processing the file, etc .It will be possible to locate the auctioned good through virtual maps and photographs. In addition, the citizen will be able to search either by type of auction, estate, furniture and vehicles - by location, appraised value, date or state of the auction.
Success in Murcia
The Ministry of Justice has been developing since 2007 a pilot project of electronic auctions in the region of Murcia, which has proven to be a "success" in managing the award of seized properties, said Caamaño.
The minister said that since the implementation of the project, the ratio of the Internet bidders who attend has grown nearly 190%. Also, in the last two years, the number of Internet awards increased by 250%. "This shows it is a tool that people know and use," said Caamaño.
During the first quarter of 2011, the courts awarded 113 properties in Murcia on the Internet compared with 53 in the same period of 2010, a 113% increase. The value of the auctioned goods in this period was 18.4 million Euros compared to 6.6 million Euros in the same period last year. The hammer price increase because of increased number of bidders was between 20% and 25%.
This initiative was recognized by the European Commission and the Council of Europe with the prize "Crystal Scales of Justice" for its contributions to advertising and access to justice across borders, as EUcitizens can also participate.
New translated from Expansion by CostaLuz Lawyers
"Ronda", Ronda - Malaga, Spain, by Werkmens, at flickr.com