How Title Passes to the Auction Buyer

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.

Title of the adquirente en subasta

The buyer at a subasta judicial does not receive a deed from a seller, and does not sign a contract with the ejecutado. There is no seller in the transaction at all in the ordinary sense: the court is disposing of the asset.

What the buyer actually gets

Instrument	Role
Acta de subasta	The martillero’s record of the auction act and the winning bid
Proof of payment	Seña plus the balance, into the cuenta judicial
Auto de aprobación del remate	The judicial approval — the pivotal act
Testimonio of the auto	The certified judicial instrument evidencing the transfer
Oficio judicial	The court’s order to the registry to register the transfer

Registration in the provincial Registro de la Propiedad Inmueble follows from the oficio, not from an escritura. See Ley 17.801.

Why this is worth its own page

Readers ask “when do I get the deed?” and the answer is that there is no deed to get. The absence of an escritura is not a defect in the buyer’s title and does not need to be cured by a later notarial act. The judicial instruments are the title.

Posesión is a separate step

Approval and registration give the buyer title. They do not by themselves empty the property. Physical possession comes by court order and, if the occupant will not leave, by lanzamiento executed by an oficial de justicia. See desalojo-y-lanzamiento and ocupantes.

Consequences

• The buyer’s protection runs from the regularity of the judicial process, not from a chain of private conveyances. Attacks on the title are therefore attacks on the procedure — see nulidad-de-subasta.
• Pre-possession impuestos and tasas are relieved where the price does not cover them (servicios-eficientes-c-yabra-1999), but `expensas` are not.
• An escribano is still worth engaging — to run the `estudio de títulos` before bidding, and to handle registration and any later sale.

Exact instrument names and registration mechanics vary by province and are needs_verification on each jurisdicción page.