French Civil Code
In forceLegal, judicial and contractual mortgages only rank from the day of their registration in the real estate register, in the form and manner prescribed by law.
By exception, the mortgage provided for in 3° of article 2402 is exempt from registration. It takes precedence over all other mortgages for the current year and for the last two years due. It takes precedence over the vendor's mortgage and the lender's mortgage for previous years.
Where several registrations are made on the same day in respect of the same property, their respective rank is determined as follows, regardless of the order resulting from the register provided for in Article 2447 :
-registration of a legal mortgage is deemed to rank prior to that of the registration of a legal or conventional mortgage; and if there are several registrations of legal mortgages, they compete, except in the case of the seller's special mortgage and the lender's special mortgage, the former being deemed to rank prior to the latter ;
in the presence of several registrations of conventional or legal mortgages, the one taken under the title bearing the earliest date is deemed to rank earlier; and if the titles have the same date, they compete.
