Partition auction (Teilungsversteigerung): process, costs and your options

When co-owners of a property cannot agree – a community of heirs is deadlocked or a marriage ends – German law offers a way out: the partition auction (Teilungsversteigerung) under § 180 ZVG. It is a compulsory auction to dissolve co-ownership: the driver is not debt but every co-owner's right to end the community (§ 749 BGB). Since a house cannot be divided in kind, the auction proceeds take its place (§ 753 BGB).

This guide covers both sides: co-owners considering – or trying to avert – a partition auction, and buyers, for whom partition auctions are an often underrated source of properties.

How it differs from a regular compulsory auction

	Compulsory auction (enforcement)	Partition auction
Trigger	Creditor enforces a debt	Co-owner wants to end the community
Requirement	Enforceable title	Co-ownership per land register – no title needed
Applicant	Bank or other creditor	Any co-owner, regardless of share
Proceeds	Pay the creditors	Distributed among the co-owners
Land charges	Usually extinguished with the award	Often survive in the minimum bid

For bidders the hearing itself follows the same rules as any compulsory auction: court appraisal, official announcement, at least 30 minutes of bidding, a security deposit of ten percent of the market value, and the 5/10 and 7/10 value limits in the first hearing.

The two typical constellations

Divorce: the jointly owned home

After separation the home usually belongs to both spouses in equal shares. If one wants to sell and the other does not, either spouse can apply for a partition auction – generally after the year of separation and subject to § 1365 BGB where the property makes up almost the entire marital assets. It is almost always the economically worst option: court costs, the appraisal and the risk of proceeds below market value hit both co-owners. Those who can, settle first: a buyout, a joint private sale, or transferring the property against assumption of the loan.

Community of heirs: the inherited property

Every co-heir can demand the settlement of the estate (§ 2042 BGB) – and apply for a partition auction of the estate property to get it, even against the will of all others. Alternatives are selling one's inheritance share, exiting against compensation (Abschichtung), or a settlement agreement. Especially for rented or owner-occupied estate properties the comparison pays off: a private sale almost always yields more than auction proceeds.

The process in 6 steps

1. Application to the local court (enforcement court) of the district where the property is located. Proof: a land-register excerpt showing co-ownership – no enforceable title required.
2. Order of the court; the other co-owners are notified and can appeal or apply for a temporary stay (§ 180 (2), (3) ZVG).
3. Market-value appraisal by a court-appointed expert – the same appraisal that ZVG Melder later reads in full and screens for risks.
4. Scheduling and official announcement – from here the case is public and appears on the official portal and on ZVG Melder.
5. Auction hearing with minimum bid, bidding time and award – the hearing itself runs like a regular compulsory auction; co-owners may bid.
6. Distribution of proceeds: procedural costs and surviving encumbrances are served first; the remainder is distributed by co-ownership shares. If the co-owners cannot agree on the distribution, the court deposits the proceeds – the dispute then moves to separate proceedings.

Duration and costs: From application to hearing usually takes one to two years. Court costs and the expert's fee come out of the proceeds first – they reduce what is left to distribute.

For buyers: partition auctions as a property source

A substantial share of ongoing auction proceedings – regularly several hundred nationwide – are partition auctions. For buyers they are attractive for two reasons and demanding for two:

Attractive:

• The proceedings stem from a conflict, not from arrears – the properties are often better maintained than in debt-driven auctions.
• The cases are plannable: appraisals exist, and the parties themselves usually want a solid result.

Demanding:

• Surviving encumbrances: In partition auctions, registered land charges more often fall into the minimum bid and survive the award (§ 182 ZVG). Whatever you take over, you pay on top of your cash bid – the appraisal and the court's auction conditions tell you what applies. How to check: inspecting a property before the auction.
• Co-owners bidding: Whoever wants to keep the property bids too – and knows it better than any outside bidder. Set your limit beforehand and keep it.

On ZVG Melder the proceeding type is shown on every detail page. All ongoing cases are bundled on the current partition auctions overview; in the auction search you can additionally filter by federal state and get notified about new cases via a saved search.

Note: General orientation, not legal or tax advice. Whether a partition auction is sensible, avoidable or contestable in a specific case is a matter for legal counsel; the official announcement and the auction conditions of the competent local court are authoritative.

Sources

• § 180 ZVG – auction to dissolve co-ownership
• § 182 ZVG – minimum bid in partition auctions
• § 749 BGB – right to dissolve the community
• § 753 BGB – division by sale
• § 2042 BGB – settlement of the community of heirs
• zvg-portal.de – official auction announcements