Evictions: solicitors, notaries and accountants to replace bailiffs

Solicitors, accountants and notaries may be involved in eviction proceedings. This new power, reserved for assistants to the enforcement judge, has been enshrined in an amendment to the draft law on evictions (rapporteur: Pierantonio Zanettin, Forza Italia), which has just been voted through by the Senate’s Justice Committee, following a proposal by the majority.

Work on the bill at Palazzo Madama is continuing, with the aim of bringing it before the Chamber shortly. Although a number of issues still need to be resolved – on which the majority and the Government are currently working – such as the possibility of using private security firms in procedures for the repossession of properties.

Zanettin himself had this to say about the new development concerning legal professionals: ‘The possibility of using judicial assistants offers an additional option for overcoming one of the main bottlenecks, which is currently the unavailabilityof bailiffs. The list of parties who can be called upon is being expanded; in this way, the Senate is providing a further alternative to try to speed up the time taken to release properties’.

Returning to the matter at hand, this concerns the procedure for the release of properties. It also covers all those situations in which the matter reaches the enforcement stage in order to secure their release and carry out the eviction. At the owner’s request, the judge, ‘unless there are serious grounds to the contrary’, may designate certain parties to act in place of the bailiff. These include institutions authorised by the Ministry of Justice to sell and administer of seized assets: this provision was already included in the original text of the draft bill.

The Justice Committee has, however, just added a second category of individuals: these are the assistants to the enforcement judge, professionals authorised to carry out sales on behalf of the court in procedures such as property auctions. In practice, these are solicitors, chartered accountants and notaries, registered on a special list kept at each court, who possess specific technical expertise in the field of enforcement, are of ‘impeccable moral character’ and are registered with their respective professional bodies.