§ 34.042.Sale of City Lots

A rule about how urban property is offered, and it protects the debtor.

If real property taken in execution consists of several lots, tracts, or parcels in a city or town, each lot, tract, or parcel must be offered for sale separately unless not susceptible to separate sale because of the character of improvements.

Separate offering serves the debtor in two ways.

It usually produces more money. Smaller parcels attract more bidders, and a buyer who wants one lot need not bid on five.

And it can leave the debtor with something. Where the first lots sold cover the judgment, the rest need not be sold — the officer stops when the execution is satisfied.

Selling everything as one parcel would forfeit both advantages, and would hand a bidder the whole holding at a price set by whoever showed up.

The exception is practical rather than discretionary: not susceptible to separate sale because of the character of improvements.

That describes a building standing across several platted lots. Selling the lots separately would divide a structure between owners, which serves nobody — least of all the debtor, since divided pieces of a building are worth less than the building.

Note the limit of the exception: the character of improvements. Convenience, a bidder’s preference, or the officer’s judgment about marketability are not grounds for selling in bulk.

The companion provision does the same work for property outside a city, by a different route: the debtor divides it into lots and sets the order of sale.