Debt Collection Romania

Due to the business climate in Romania, lately, the debts recovery procedure represents a major chapter of our daily activity.

Our lawyers are specialized in recovering debts from physical persons and legal entities, Romanian or foreign. Using the experience gained, we managed to develop efficient mechanisms for debts recovery.

We provide specialized legal assistance consisting in: drafting notices, procedure summons of payment, forced execution procedure, etc.

Our lawyers have vast experience in recovering debts both amiably and reaching to the litigation.

According to te Romanian legislation, there are 3 major possibilities of debts recovery*:

1. summon of payment regulated by Ordinance no. 5/2001 and Ordinance no. 119/2007;
2. common law procedure, regulated by the Commercial Code;
3. insolvency procedure, regulated by Law no. 85/2006.

1. Summon of payment
2. • For summon of payment procedure, documents that prove the debts (without penalties) are required.
   • According to Law, the documents should be signed by debtor. It is preferred that the documents are also stamped by the debtor.
   • If all these conditions are met, the complaint shall be emergency judged.
   • In this procedure, an irrevocable and enforceable decision shall be obtained in maximum four (4) months.
   • The documents required by Law are: invoices, orders, account files or any other written document proving the requested amount.

Our fee for all this procedures can vary in relation to amounts disputed and also be shielded by the principle of direct negotiation.

Also, subject related, in conformity with the difficulty and duration of disputation, our team of lawyers can add to the discussion, the success fees.

The fee includes: pre-negotiation phase (drafting notices, negotiations, etc.), drafting, filing and representation in front of the Court.

1. Common Law Procedure
2. • If there are no documents signed and / or stamped by the debtor then we have to use the common law procedure.
   • The disadvantage of this procedure is that the action takes relatively long, an irrevocable and enforceable decision, can be obtained in approx. 10 months (5 terms). Also the procedure is much more expensive.
   • In this procedure we can use any proofs.
   • This procedure includes: prior conciliation procedure - mandatory according to Romanian legislation, in this procedure - (drafting notification, negotiations, etc.), drafting, filing and representation in front of the Court.
   • For this procedure the stamp duty for the Romanian state shall be about 8% of the total amount.
3. Insolvency procedure
4. • If the debtor is presumed bankrupt (the last payment is due to pay for more than 30 days) we could start the insolvency procedure.
   • Bankruptcy involves basically the same procedure as for summon of payment but can take more time, because the court must appoint a Liquidator.
   • The Liquidator is the person appointed to prepare documents for liquidation of the company.
   • The documentation includes inventory and balance sheet liquidation, stating the exact status of assets and liabilities of the Company. So all these operations may restrict and lead the Court to analyze the company’s status of insolvency for a longer period of time.
   • The Liquidator is obliged to receive and keep the company’s records, which have been entrusted by the administrators, and all the company’s documents.
   • This procedure in Court takes between 6 and 12 months and sometimes it can extend to over 18 moths.
5. Forced execution procedure
6. • After obtaining an irrevocable and enforceable decision we begin forced execution.
   • Judicial executor’s (bailiff’s) fees are about 3% for the total amounts.
   • The procedure of force execution can take six (6) months.

If the debtor is outside Bucharest, we can represent the client in front of the Court belonging to debtor registered office.

* Data from the section above are in accordance with the legislation in force, but serve strictly as informative.

For any further details or information please do not hesitate to contact us.