Argentina (AR) — civil law.

Nothing on this page describes United States practice. There is no certificate sold to an investor, no administrative sale of land for unpaid tax, and no redemption window after a subasta judicial in Argentina. If you arrived carrying US assumptions, read falsos-amigos first.

Automotores y motovehículos

A car, pickup, truck, trailer or motorcycle is a cosa mueble registrable: its title exists only in the national registry run by the DNRPA, and a transfer has no effect — even between the parties — until inscribed (RJA art. 1). The buyer at a forced sale therefore gets the vehicle in two steps: physical delivery after paying, and ownership only when the seller-side instrument (a court oficio, or a creditor’s or public body’s certificate) is inscribed at the Registro Seccional. Until then you cannot obtain the cédula, and without the cédula, licence and proof of patente payment you cannot lawfully drive it (RJA art. 22).

Vehicles reach forced sale by four distinct routes, and the buyer’s position differs in each: (1) a subasta judicial ordered by a court in any execution, quiebra or ejecución prendaria — the court distributes the price and orders the registry to inscribe and lift measures; (2) the art. 39 extrajudicial sale by a bank or financial entity holding a `prenda con registro`, after a court-ordered secuestro — the creditor, not the court, sells and certifies; (3) sales by public bodies of their own fleet or of abandoned, lost or seized vehicles; and (4) customs (Aduana) sales of goods in rezago, comiso or abandono. Each is inscribed through a different Digesto section, purges different things, and leaves different debts behind. The three risks that most often wipe out value are not price risk: a vehicle reported stolen or carrying a pedido de secuestro, engine/chassis numbers that do not match the folio, and patentes and fines the edict puts on the buyer.

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