Posts by Dr. Stefan Heinze

I would like to present a decision of the BGH from December 19, 2025 (V ZR 15/24); this can be accessed in full text on the BGH website and will certainly be published in numerous specialist journals. The BGH confirms the admissibility of a so-called „neighboring building right“. This is (in simple terms) a heritable building right that extends beyond the...

OLG Dresden, 7.7.2025, 17 W 428/25: Exchange of co-ownership shares of spouses permissible. An interesting decision by the Higher Regional Court of Dresden on July 17 deserves attention: Two spouses were registered as equal owners of a property. Now each spouse transferred their half to the other. What is striking about this is that, in the end, the ownership structure does not change. The...

News from the Higher Regional Court of Cologne on the procedure for the imposition of bids in the event of the loss of land charge certificates (August 13, 2025, 2 W 125/25): Facts and decision: In principle, the creditor entered in the land register is entitled to file a petition for the execution of a bidding procedure pursuant to § 1162 BGB (loss of land charge certificates, § 467 para. 2 FamFG). In most cases, this concerns circumstances in which the loan has long been...

A decision of the Higher Regional Court (OLG) of Braunschweig dated September 1, 2025 (Ref. 2 W 808/25) deals with the (very practice-relevant) question of whether the merely clarifying entry of a change in ground rent (by virtue of a value protection clause) can be entered in the land register as a change in content. The main facts of the case can be summarized as follows: - Initial situation: A property was encumbered with a heritable building right,...

Higher Regional Court of Brandenburg facilitates practice in the case of encumbrance powers of attorney (Section 800 ZPO) In its decision dated September 23, 2025 (case no. 5 W 120/24), the Higher Regional Court of Brandenburg issued a decision of practical relevance regarding the interpretation of encumbrance powers of attorney. The court provides clarity for the creation of enforceable mortgages and thus creates more legal certainty in land register proceedings. Starting point: Power of attorney to create security rights over real property In...

Today I present a decision of the BGH from January 24, 2025 (case reference: V ZR 51/24). The Court ruled that a crossing construction obligation does not constitute a right of way under civil law. The facts of the case were as they often are: neighbors were in dispute with each other. The plaintiff's property had been created by a division of land and had a courtyard and two garages. The driveway...

Is a notarized will (or contract of inheritance) sufficient or is a certificate of inheritance required in the land register procedure? This question is answered by Section 35 (1) sentence 2 of the Land Register Code (GBO). Such a disposition of property upon death can prove the succession for land register purposes, unless the land register office does not consider the succession to be proven by these documents. However...

Today I would like to refer to a decision of the V. Civil Senate on the subject of partition auctions: BGH, decision of 26.09.2024 - V ZB 8/24 Guiding principle: A partition auction can only be carried out in relation to plots of land in the legal sense that are entered in the inventory of a land register sheet under a separate number. The auction of a single parcel of land that is part of a larger...

Today I would like to introduce you to an interesting decision by the Federal Court of Justice on structural changes to a condominium. The decision was issued on July 19, 2024 (default judgment) and has the file number V ZR 226/23. The guiding principles are as follows: a) Since December 1, 2020, the condominium owners have been able to decide on a structural change even if the right to use the property...