Privilegios Marítimos y Aeronáuticos — Who Gets Paid First From a Ship or Aircraft, and What the Sale Wipes

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.

Privilegios marítimos y aeronáuticos

The Código Civil y Comercial does not rank creditors on a ship or an aircraft itself. Its closed list of special privileges ends with “los privilegios establecidos en la Ley de Navegación, el Código Aeronáutico, la Ley de Entidades Financieras, la Ley de Seguros y el Código de Minería” (CCyC art. 2582(f); see privilegios-del-ccyc). Both special regimes make their privileges outrank every other general or special privilege (Ley 20.094 art. 471; Código Aeronáutico art. 58). Both place the hipoteca in a fixed slot inside that list rather than at the top. Both extinguish the privileges by a venta judicial and move them onto the price (Ley 20.094 arts. 472, 484(b); CA art. 63 inc. 3). The regimes then differ sharply:

• Ships: thirteen privileges in two groups, with the hipoteca naval sandwiched between them (art. 476). They do not need to be registered, and they die after one year unless the ship is attached.
• Aircraft: five privileges that only count if entered in the Registro Nacional de Aeronaves within three months (CA art. 58), and that lapse two years after that entry unless renewed (art. 63).

For a bidder, the practical point is that a ship can carry invisible privileged claims — crew wages, port dues, salvage — that appear nowhere in the register but will be paid out of the price ahead of the mortgage lender. An aircraft cannot.

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