A sale subject to a resolutive condition is a sale whose results may be reversed by the occurrence of a future and uncertain event.
According to the provisions of Article 202 of the Civil Code “if the legal act is contingent upon the reversal of its results by a future and uncertain event (resolutory condition), as soon as this event occurs, the legal act ceases to have effect and the previous situation is automatically restored.”
In view of this provision, the resolutive condition contained in the contract for the sale and transfer of ownership of real estate, according to which, if the buyer, who undertook the obligation to perform a certain act within a specified period of time which may also consist in the payment of the credited price, fails to fulfill this obligation, shall forfeit all rights arising from the sale and the sold property shall become reclaimable and shall be returned without further formalities to the seller’s ownership, undoubtedly constitutes an interference with the contract of resolutive condition, under which both the agreement for the transfer of ownership under Article 1033 of the Civil Code and the contractual act of sale, which constitutes, according to the above provision, the legal cause of the transfer, are concluded.
When this resolutive condition is fulfilled, because the deadline within which the buyer was required to act has passed without action, then, according to the will of the parties, which was clearly expressed and is in accordance with the provisions of the aforementioned provision of Article 202 of the Civil Code, the entire contract is reversed, both in terms of its contractual and real effect, in the sense that it ceases to be valid upon the occurrence of the contingent event and the previous situation is automatically restored, and therefore ownership reverts to the seller, without any further action on his part being required (such as a declaration of withdrawal), while the buyer forfeits his rights under the sales contract (PPK 72/2018 – TNOMOS, AP 1361/2017, AP 389/2017, AP 2099/2009, AP 1133/2009, AP 848/2008, AP 637/2003, EfLar 110/2015.).
