ATHENS, October 2026 — Greece’s Council of State has blocked first home auctions for public debts when the debtor still holds other assets that can cover what is owed.
The ruling covers debts collected under the Code for the Collection of Public Revenues (KEDE) — tax offices, municipalities, social insurance funds and other public-law bodies. Judges said a family home cannot be seized and listed for first home auctions if other attachable property can satisfy the debt.
Debtors facing first home auctions may also file an objection at any stage of the process, from the seizure report through to the auction programme. Until now, courts had accepted objections mainly at the seizure-report stage.
The Sixth Chamber, chaired by vice-president Ioannis Gravarıs with rapporteur councillor Eleni Papadimitriou, dismissed a state bid to overturn lower-court protection of a Moschato maisonette.
First home auctions test case
The head of FAE Piraeus had listed a 162-square-metre maisonette on the first and second floors in Moschato for forced auction. A company managing director owned half of it; his wife owned the other half. The listing followed company tax debts of €142,917.
Valuers put the half-share at €100,000 and set a first offer price of €80,000. The managing director objected at the Administrative Court of First Instance in Athens, arguing that auctioning the family’s only home breached constitutional duties to protect marriage, the family and the family shelter, and that milder steps against other property should come first.
That court cancelled the auction programme. The Administrative Court of Appeal in Athens later dismissed the state’s appeal, finding the property was the family’s sole main residence and that the debtor held other real estate elsewhere in the country. First home auctions against that dwelling were neither suitable nor necessary, the appeal judges said.
The state then asked the Council of State to quash the appeal ruling. It argued the tax-office head had lawfully chosen which asset to seize under KEDE discretion. The Council rejected that claim.
What the judges require
Judges stressed that under the Constitution a person’s home is essential to dignity, security and family life, and that state organs must make that protection effective. When a public-interest measure would strip someone of housing, every act in the process must show the step was strictly necessary and that milder options were exhausted first.
Under KEDE, seizure of a debtor’s only proven family home is lawful only after other suitable assets have been investigated and documented as unavailable. Otherwise the choice of the home is unlawful — and that unlawfulness covers later steps in first home auctions as well as the seizure report.
Greek City Times previously reported how Greece eased property seizure rules for some tax debtors and how the tax authority listed properties for autumn auctions. Official tax collection sits with the Independent Authority for Public Revenue.
Source: Proto Thema
Bill Giannopoulos
Junior Editor
Bill Giannopoulos is a Junior Editor at Greek City Times, covering Greek and international news, sport, and history.