6
Greek Business Law
A Handbook for Businesses and Legal Practitioners
Issues in Civil Law
3. Real Property
Commercial contracts are subject to the constant flux of new forms of commer-
cial and financial arrangements and the constant development of the econo-
my, which lead either to the creation of new types of contracts or to the amend-
ment, re-development or combination of existing types.
2.6. Assignments
Unless agreed otherwise or disallowed by compulsory law, a claim or a con-
tract is, in principle, transferable. Under article 455 of the Greek Civil Code, the
claim or the performance of a contract passes to the assignee by a contract of
assignment without any requirement that the debtor consents. However, the
assignee becomes entitled to the claim and/or to the rights and obligations of
a contract only when either he or the assignor so notifies the debtor (art. 460,
Civil Code). The debtor who, for instance, pays the assignor or continues to per-
form the contract towards the assignor without knowing of the assignment,
is discharged (art. 461, Civil Code). Towards the assignee the debtor has all the
obligations which he had towards the assignor (art. 462, Civil Code). The debtor
may raise against the assignee all defenses which were in existence against the
assignor at the time of the notification to him of the assignment (art. 463, Civil
Code). The assignor is not liable towards the assignee for the solvency of the
debtor (art. 468, Civil Code) but only liable, in principle, for the non-existence of
the claimor the contract (art. 467, Civil Code).
3. Real Property
3.1. Real property rights and related distinctions
The right to property is a fundamental constitutional right which may be com-
promised only in exceptional circumstances (i.e. expropriation for the sake of
public interest). The key source of property law is found in the third book of the
Civil Code (arts 947 to 1345), which provides for all real property rights, i.e. own-
ership (arts 999 to 1117), servitudes (arts 1118 to 1191), pledges (arts 1209 to
1256) and the hypothec or mortgage (arts 1257 to 1345). The Civil Code also
makes the following distinctions:
(a) full ownership;
(b) bare ownership, which falls short of full ownership because of lacking
usufruct, i.e. the right enabling its holder to derive profit or benefit from
property; bare ownership thus means that the bare owner cannot use or
exploit his property; unless otherwise indicated, usufruct is inactivated
