Encumbrance (ónus)
An encumbrance is any charge over a property — mortgage, seizure, easement, lease, usufruct — and the question that decides an auction is whether it is extinguished by the sale or follows the property.
What it is, why it matters when bidding, and a worked example.
Encumbrances are entered in the land registry and appear on the permanent certificate. In an enforcement sale the rule is that registered security interests — mortgages, seizures, attachments — lapse with the sale and are cancelled, because their purpose was to secure a payment the sale satisfies. That lapse is what makes buying at auction viable at all.
Not all of them lapse. Easements typically survive (a right of way, a right to a view), as do rights of use created and registered before the security being enforced, and earlier leases in certain conditions. An old residential lease at a low rent can drastically reduce a property's usable value even when the registry is clean of mortgages.
Reading the encumbrances is therefore not a counting exercise but a dating one: what matters is the chronological order between the charge and the security being enforced. The conditions of sale and the notice should declare which charges survive; when they don't, the registry certificate and the terms of sale are the source, and missing information is itself a risk to price in.
Example
A house with a base value of €140,000 carries two entries: a 2019 mortgage and a residential lease registered in 2016. The mortgage falls away with the sale; the lease, being earlier, remains. The buyer acquires a house let at €350/month — which changes the arithmetic entirely: the property is worth less, possession is not immediate, and the yield is fixed by a contract they did not negotiate.
Frequently asked questions
Do encumbrances always disappear at auction?
No. Security interests (mortgages, seizures, attachments) registered over the property being enforced lapse. Easements and rights predating the enforced security generally do not. The distinction depends on registration dates, not on the type of auction.
Where do I see a property's encumbrances?
On the permanent land registry certificate and in the case's terms or conditions of sale. Many notices summarise them; a summary does not replace the certificate, which is where the full history of dates lives.
Related terms
Go deeper
Encumbrances, occupancy, debts and missing paperwork: what to check before bidding.
Read the full guide