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Created on Sunday, 14 June 2009 18:57

Last Updated on Monday, 10 March 2014 10:02

GbR - Owner of Real Estate

So far it has only been a heated discussion in the legal literature and courts as to whether a private partnership can by itself have real estate as property. The Federal Court of Justice now made an end to these discussions with its judgment of December 4, 2008 (re V ZB 74/08).

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A private partnership (GbR) obtained a title under its company name and applied upon presentation of this legal instrument to register a (§1184 BGB) on a share of a real-estate held in joint property. The land registry denied the entry. The BGH had to decide if and when as well as under which name this company could be entered into the land registry.

The court held the Gesellschaft bürgerlichen Rechts can be entered into the land registry as such. In concrete such company will entered under its company name and with the addition "Gesellschaft bürgerlichen Rechts bestehend aus... ("private partnership consisting of...")". So when two journalists have a GbR with the company name "ink blotters gbr" so their entry in the land registry will read: Ink Blotters GbR consisting of Mark Twain & Samuel Clemens.

It is assumed that a private partnership has partial legal capacity. Physical persons (like adults) and juristic persons (like corporations) have full legal capacity meaning full rights and duties in commerce. In as far as a GbR is concerned, it has partial legal capacity. It is comparable to normal persons but not in all circumstances due to the structure of a private partnership. Although a GbR e.g. cannot be a manager of group of condominiums that does not disclude such a company being entered into the land registry and so own real-restate or rights related to real-estates.