Subasta Judicial — the Master Page

Argentina (AR) — civil law.

Nothing on this page describes United States practice. There is no certificate sold to an investor, no administrative sale, and no post-sale redemption window in Argentina. If you arrived carrying US assumptions, read falsos-amigos first.

Subasta judicial

A court-ordered public sale of the debtor’s property, conducted by a `martillero público` appointed by the judge, to satisfy a judgment. It is the terminal step of every forced-sale process in Argentina.

There is exactly one route.

Whether the creditor is a bank with a hipoteca, a provincial fisco owed impuesto inmobiliario, a municipality owed tasas, or an ordinary judgment creditor, the property is sold the same way: a judge orders a subasta. No Argentine creditor, including the state, can sell a debtor’s property administratively.

The sequence

1. Judgment. In an `ejecución hipotecaria` or a `apremio`, the court issues a sentencia de trance y remate — literally, judgment to proceed to sale.

2. Order for auction. The court orders the subasta, appoints the martillero, and fixes the conditions: the `base`, the `seña`, the day and hour, and the terms of publication.

3. `Edictos`. Publication in the boletín oficial and, as ordered, a newspaper. Defective publication is a live ground for attacking the sale.

4. The act. Historically a live outcry before the martillero. Increasingly electronic: Buenos Aires Province since 2014–15, and for national and federal courts seated in CABA compulsorily since 1 October 2025 under Acordada CSJN 15/25, with anonymous bidding.

5. Acta de subasta. The record of the sale. The winning postor pays the seña at once and the balance within the period fixed.

6. Auto de aprobación del remate. The judicial approval. This is the pivotal document — before it, the sale is not final; after it, the buyer’s position is substantially consolidated.

7. Registration and possession. Transfer is registered by oficio judicial — see titulo-del-adquirente-en-subasta. Possession follows, by `lanzamiento` if the occupant will not leave.

8. Distribution. Costs, comisión, privileged credits, the executing creditor, and then the `remanente` to the ejecutado.

Where the money sits

Auction proceeds go into a cuenta judicial — a court-controlled account, in practice at Banco de la Nación Argentina — and leave it only by judicial order. There is no third-party stakeholder and no agency fund. See remanente.

Sin base

If the property does not sell at the fixed base, the court may order a further auction at a reduced base or sin base — without a minimum. The number of attempts and the reduction steps are procedural and therefore provincial; needs_verification per jurisdiction.

What a bidder is actually buying

Not a clean slate. The buyer takes:

• Relief from pre-possession taxes and tasas where the price does not cover them — servicios-eficientes-c-yabra-1999;
• but liability for unpaid `expensas` on a propiedad horizontal unit;
• whatever occupancy exists — see ocupantes;
• and the physical condition, sight substantially unseen.

See diligencia-previa-a-la-subasta before bidding.