The drama becomes a farce: almost ten years after the landslide in eltmann, which has kept the authorities, courts and a whole army of lawyers busy ever since, the vineyard at the wallburg came under the hammer on friday before the district court in bamberg. Although an interested party offered 25,000 euros, twice the market value, he was not awarded the contract. At the last minute the foreclosure proceedings were stopped.
Why? This is the question you have to ask the operator of the foreclosure sale, a credit institution based in habberge county. It owns a land charge on the 22,000-square-meter site in eltmann, 160,000 euros, according to michael battert, the legal officer who conducted the foreclosure auction.
Security for credit
A land charge is commonly used to secure loans: the debtor agrees to pay interest and repay principal on a regular basis. If he cannot do this, the creditor, in this case the bank, resorts to the land debt to get back their money or at least part of the money.
The 160,000 euros are exactly the purchase price paid in 2002 by the martin family of ziegelanger for the vineyard in eltmann. A vineyard that was no longer a vineyard but was to become one again. Therefore, martins began clearing the overgrown property and sculpting the slope to make the mountain accessible. But then came the event known as the "vineyard affair" the court was filled to the brim with files and has brought many a lawyer to the brink of despair.
The rough rain
An unusually heavy downpour of rain soaked the night of the 5th. June 2002. Deprived of his protective plant cover, the earth kingdom began to move. Water and mud flowed into the properties of several riparians.
The damages were considerable, and the legal dispute that ensued was also of extraordinary dimensions. Who is to blame for the misery? The authorities demanded (and still demand) proper drainage of the property, otherwise not a single vine may be planted there. According to the martin family, the drainage is the responsibility of the city of eltmann, which did not point out possible problems when the purchase of the land went through the stage. And so on …
Years of dispute
After years of dispute, the landlords were finally compensated with 90,000 euros. For the martin family, the drama surrounding the vineyard is now not least a financial disaster. Apart from the purchase price, "we were left with enormous costs", says sylvia martin. The countervalue is a "junk property", worthless without viticulture.
The financial situation had apparently caused the credit institute to make use of its land charge and to proceed with the foreclosure of the property. The market value of the land was fixed by experts at 12 400 euro (including vineyard rights; without: 7500 euro).
Minimum bid
Under foreclosure law, at least half of the market value must be offered as a minimum bid at the first hearing, otherwise the court will refuse to award the property. If the minimum bid is less than seven tenths of the market value, the creditor has the right to request the refusal of the award.
All the subtleties of the auction law did not come into play at all on friday from 8 o'clock in room 28 of the district court in bamberg. After battert had opened the bidding period (30 minutes), the first bid was soon on the table: manfred schober, a building contractor from eltmann, offered 12,500 euro. He wants to use the hillside as a recreational property, he told infranken.
25 000 euros for the first time ….
Shortly before the end of the bidding period came a second offer: maximilian martin, a son of the martin family, outbid schober with 20 000 euro. Schober then raised his own bid to 25,000 euros, and he had probably won the bid because he was able to present the security required by the court (ten percent of the market value, 1240 euros).
Battert ends bidding period, third anonymous bidder already late with option. But then the foreclosure auction ended as abruptly as it did surprisingly for the spectators in the courtroom: the representative of the credit institution made use of his right to end the foreclosure auction proceedings at any point in time. He filed a motion to dismiss the case, which battert denied. Schober did not win the bid, the vineyard does not change hands. What prompted the bank to take this step must remain its secret.
The representative of the credit institution did not want to say anything to infranken about this, nor about the demands against the martin family. There could be no doubt, however, that the liabilities would be far higher than any proceeds from the foreclosure sale, if it had been completed.