Selected problems related to visual inspection during description and appraisal of property

Abstract

Description and appraisal of real property is one of the critical stages of enforcement against the property. It requires cooperation between a court bailiff and a property appraiser (an expert) and the enforced debtor. Unfortunately, in practice, there is often a problem with conducting a property inspection because debtors are not interested in cooperating with the enforcement authority or an efficient and quick conduct of this procedure. On the other hand, an incorrect appraisal of the value of the property may be to the detriment of the debtor and the creditor, as well as give rise to liability of the appraiser and the bailiff for damage towards the parties to the enforcement proceedings as well as third parties. Therefore, in this article the author analyses the interpretation of the current legal status regarding the indicated issues as well as proposes statutory changes, which is all the more important given the very unstable jurisprudence observed in the practice of applying the law. As the author of this study clearly emphasizes, the lawmaker should opt for a uniform approach to the changes, i.e., amend the provisions on the description and appraisal by adding a provision on the appropriate application of Article 814 of the Code of Civil Procedure during the performance of these tasks, while at the same time regulating the issue of who will be in charge of management over such an open real property or enable description and appraisal to be conducted in the event of no cooperation between the bailiff and the debtor under limited conditions, i.e., using real property data that can be obtained on the basis of the available sources of information.