foreclosure
noun · Zwangsversteigerung
Zwangsversteigerung for the forced sale by which a German lender realises a Grundpfandrecht, § 15 ZVG, but strict foreclosure, the lender simply keeping the property, has no German equivalent, § 1149 BGB forbids the lender to agree in advance to take the property instead of selling it. So foreclosure is a court-run auction, not a taking, and Zwangsvollstreckung is too broad, that is enforcement in general.
Which translation, when
Why
Foreclosure is how a mortgagee turns the security into money, and German gives the creditor a court-run sale rather than the property itself. Realisation of a Hypothek or Grundschuld runs through the ZVG, either by Zwangsversteigerung, the forced auction of the land, § 15 ZVG, or by Zwangsverwaltung, compulsory management paying the creditor from the income, § 146 ZVG. What German law does not allow is the historic core of strict foreclosure, the lender keeping the property in satisfaction of the debt, § 1149 BGB voids any agreement made before the debt falls due that lets the creditor take the property or sell it otherwise than under the enforcement rules, the Verfallklausel is prohibited, so there is no taking, only a regulated sale whose surplus returns to the owner. The equity of redemption behind the English word also has no direct counterpart, the debtor pays off the secured claim, and with a Grundschuld the security does not even follow the debt automatically. So foreclosure is reconstructed as Zwangsversteigerung, occasionally Zwangsverwaltung, and the reflex Zwangsvollstreckung is the whole law of enforcement, wider than this one route, while Ausschluss, exclusion, is simply the wrong word.
Typical mistakes
- Strict foreclosure has no German equivalent, § 1149 BGB voids a pre-default agreement letting the creditor take the property, so translating foreclosure as a lender keeping the land describes something German law forbids.
- Zwangsvollstreckung is enforcement in general, not this route, the sale of mortgaged land is Zwangsversteigerung, § 15 ZVG, so the broad word overstates and loses the specific auction.
- The surplus of a Zwangsversteigerung returns to the owner, so foreclosure must not be read as a forfeiture of the whole value, only satisfaction of the secured claim out of the proceeds.
What matters
Default and enforcement clauses meet a taking that is not allowed: a German lender realises its Grundschuld by Zwangsversteigerung, a court auction, § 15 ZVG, not by keeping the property, which § 1149 BGB forbids. The clause letting the lender take the charged land on default has written a Verfallklausel German law strikes down.
What the machine misses
Foreclosure comes back as Zwangsvollstreckung or Ausschluss in machine output, and both miss the German shape, the sale of mortgaged land is one specific route, die Zwangsversteigerung under the ZVG, and the historic taking behind strict foreclosure is actually forbidden, § 1149 BGB voids the lender’s pre-default right to keep the property. So a translated foreclosure either inflates into enforcement at large or implies a taking German law does not permit, when what happens is a court auction whose surplus goes back to the owner.
Examples
| the forced sale | die Zwangsversteigerung |
| foreclosure proceedings | das Zwangsversteigerungsverfahren |
| compulsory administration | die Zwangsverwaltung |
| the equity of redemption | das Ablösungsrecht |