The creditor failed to foreclose on the mortgaged property in time. Can the mortgage record be removed from the Unified State Register of Real Estate?
The St. Petersburg City Court terminated the encumbrance in the form of a mortgage on the only apartment of a citizen since the mortgagee missed the limitation period for foreclosure on the property. Thus, the debt has effectively become unclaimable. Therefore, maintaining the corresponding entry in the Russian Unified State Register of Real Estate violates the debtor's right to dispose of his only home.
The TV&P lawyer Ekaterina Schmitt explained in her commentary to the “Advokatskaya Gazeta” (Russian Advocacy Newspaper) that the court repeated the long-established position in caselaw. The approach applied by the court is aimed at ensuring a balance of the parties' interests and preventing the indefinite existence of the mortgagee’s rights. At the same time, the interest of this case is that the mortgage itself was registered only in 2019, while the loan agreement is dated 2016.
“Advokatskaya Gazeta” (Russian Advocacy Newspaper) is the official body of the Russian Federal Bar Association (published since 2007). The Newspaper’s publications are devoted to the most important legal topics, case law, as well as legal practice and issues of advocacy.