Enforcing creditor (exequente)
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The exequente is the creditor who started the enforcement proceedings to collect a debt through the seizure and sale of the debtor’s assets.
Enforcement is brought by whoever appears as creditor in the enforceable document (CPC article 53). The exequente may be a bank, a company, a condominium or an individual. In tax enforcement, the State collects through the Tax Authority.
The enforcing creditor is not the seller in the usual sense. The owner of the property is the , and the sale is run by the . The creditor is heard on the sale method and the (CPC article 812) and receives its share of the price.
The creditor may also buy. If it acquires the property, it need not deposit the part of the price it is entitled to receive, provided that part is not needed to pay creditors ranked ahead of it (article 815). In , if present at the opening, it may bid against the highest bidder (article 820(5)).
Example
Illustrative example: a bank is owed €80,000 and is the only creditor. The property is sold to a third party for €100,000. The bank receives the €80,000 after costs are paid, and what is left goes to the debtor.
In practice, at an auction
The name of the enforcing creditor on the listing says something about where the debt came from, but does not change the rules of the sale. Other creditors may hold a or on the same property; all are paid from the price in the order set in the proceedings. The buyer does not negotiate with the creditor: questions go to whoever is running the sale.