Notice of freezing and confiscation orders in accordance with the Regulation (UE) 2018/1805

Part 1. Registry requirements

1. What is the procedure to lodge or present these judicial orders in the Land Register? Particularly electronic.

These judicial orders are received by our prosecution authority and deposit or delivered by a police officer in the land registry. The police officer then makes a report of that deposit. But such judicial orders can also be transmitted/are accepted by regular mail by the land registry.

2. Possibility of registering these orders in the event that who appears as the owner of a property according to the land registry («A») is a different person from the defendant (or person «B») who is issued a freezing or confiscation order against

In such a case, the registration is rejected, because the judicial order doesn’t concern the owner of the immovable property. But it is possible, that clarification is asked in such cases before rejecting.

3. Type and duration of the registration of these orders

• A freezing order and a confiscation order are not considered different, the same registration or notice includes both.
• A freezing order can only lead to provisional or temporary registrations.
• A confiscation order can only lead to provisional or temporary registrations.

Part 2. Registry effects

1. Effects of the freezing order once registered

• Prohibition of disposal: the owner is not allowed to sell, mortgage or carry out any other act of disposal on the property. The order blocks any possible registration.
• It involves the possibility of a forced sale of the property.
• It involves the possibility of auctioning the property.
• The registration has a validity of duration of 10 years, and a mention of it appears also in the box that is reserved for the mortgage registrations, but without any indication of an amount.

2. Effects of the confiscation order once registered

• Prohibition of disposal: the owner is not allowed to sell, mortgage or carry out any other act of disposal on the property. The order blocks any possible registration.
• It involves the possibility of a forced sale of the property.
• It involves the possibility of auctioning the property.
• The registration has a validity of duration of 10 years, and a mention of it appears also in the box that is reserved for the mortgage registrations, but without any indication of an amount.

3. What is the registry proceeding and moment in which the opening procedures of freezing or confiscation are applied for registration?

Concerning the registry proceeding of freezing and/or confiscation orders followed by the land registry office, it is in fact and in a practical view, the same procedure that the one which is followed when registering an act (notary act, judicial decision, etc. …). The land registry office registers it in the mortgage register, in its division reserved for the registration of transactions.

Concerning the moment, in which the freezing and/or confiscation orders are taken into consideration by the land registry office for the means of registration, it is linked to the reception of such freezing and/or confiscation orders from the judicial criminal authorities by the land registry office. It is at that time and only if there is a deposit of such order, that the registration procedure of such orders is put in place. See answer to question 2 below.

4. What are the executing authorities of these orders in this national system and what is the role of the land registers?

In the first place, for the means of the execution of such European orders, as well as for national orders of that kind, the competent authorities in Luxemburg are the judicial criminal authorities, which receive such orders from abroad.

Then, after validating legally the orders, those authorities transfer them by mail or deposit them in person in the land registry office, which carries out the registration procedure. So that the role of the land registry office in this matter, and enforcement of such orders, is kind of a secondary or passive nature, depending on the evaluation of the national competent judicial criminal authorities in this domain.

Part 3. National land registry experience

There aren’t any known problems and it is generally applied in criminal matters. The first judicial orders in that matter were received in 2011 and are quite frequent.