Real estate foreclosures stop. The blocking of collection activities has caused the registration of executions to collapse in the Courts.
This is the situation described by the T6 Observatory, the study table on Italian executions, which elaborated the “Study of the timing of Italian executions“, Now in its sixth edition.
Executions dropped by 40% in 2020
Although focused on 2019, the Observatory wanted to provide a first focus of the current year. According to the data relating to the first half of 2020, executions fell by an average of 40% compared to 2019. But in many cases, it goes far beyond, such as in Rome (- 47%), Milan (- 46.84%), Naples (-51 %%) or in realities exhausted by Covid, such as Piacenza (-76.6%) and Lodi (-60.42%). Numbers that are explained in part by the health emergency, in part by the rules of the DL Cura Italia, which block the foreclosures until October 31st as regards the main houses.
Jobless debt collection professionals
“Basically, the entire chain of non-performing loans is at a standstill – is the comment of Stefano Scopigli, president of the T6 Observatory – damaging the 10,000 workers in the sector and the many professionals who are part of it. In addition, the halt to courts and real estate auctions has called into question the important improvements produced by the 2015 reform and civil justice itself appears close to default“. The photograph of the real estate executions before the Coronavirus is quite different. According to the 2019 Report, the productivity of the courts has grown a lot: the judicial offices have closed 89,913 enforcement procedures, with a positive balance of 104% compared to the 43,434 files registered from scratch in 2019. The slight lengthening of the average time for defining the file This is explained by the large number of closed proceedings: last year it went from 4.2 years to 4.62, in practice 150 days more than in 2018.
However, 37,000 of these practices had exceeded 5 years of service in court. In general, the numbers for 2019 are in line with the European average of around three years.
Time of definition of real estate executions
The ranking of the courts with the better timing in the definition of real estate executions in 2019 sees Trieste on the podium, with an average of 2 years and 5 days, Ferrara with 2 years and 41 days, and Trento, with 2 and a half years. Followed by Aosta (2.56), Gorizia (2.66), and Napoli Nord, the court classified as “very large” which closes the executive procedures in 2 years and 75 days. Bolzano (2.84), Savona (2.85), Como (2.99) and Busto Arsizio with an average of three years close the ranking of the “magnificent 10”. Despite the large number of cases, Rome ranks 22nd, with 3 years and 56 days. Cagliari, with 6 years and 87 days, has the longest definition times, followed by Enna (6 years and 78 days) and Patti, another Sicilian court, with 6 years and 77 days.
The courts that foreclose the most
The Observatory also analyzed the problem of executions with 10 and more years of judicial history, which affect the backlog of civil justice. Of the 204 thousand procedures still pending, 13.45% can boast this long process. Executions with a history of over ten years are concentrated above all in 12 courts, within which the executive files make up one third of the total. In this negative ranking, Potenza is in first place, with a percentage of 51.83, followed by Matera (43.31%). In third place is Salerno (40.77%), while Lagonegro (Pz), with its 36.41%, conquers the fourth position, closely followed by Gela, who has 34.75% of executive procedures over ten years. Among the large courts, Catania (21.90%), Naples (16.99%), Milan (16.53%) suffer. First in the class, therefore without any executive procedure with more than 10 years, are the courts of North Naples, Rimini, Gorizia, Aosta and Bolzano. Honorable mention for Monza, with a modest 0.89%.
“The numbers of the Study on the timing of the courts clearly show us that the ‘normality’ of real estate executions is that of 2019, and not that of 2020, practically stopped – Scopigli points out -. Due to the emergency, problem loans will increase exponentially. Unblocking the sector appears to be a priority to restore breath to the economy, in liquidity crisis“.
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