Faster release than the “fifle of the bankrupt”. Changes in consumer bankruptcy are being prepared
Another model of supervision over the implementation of the repayment plan and faster deletion of the bankrupt from the National Register of Debt – these are the most important changes for debtors that may become part of the bankruptcy law. The assumptions of the project were published in the list of legislative works of the Council of Ministers.
The number of advertisements about consumer bankruptcy has been a bit stabilized recently, but over 1.5 thousand are still bankrupt every month. natural persons. Even 5 years ago, a similar number of matters was considered within a quarter. Each solution that will improve the processes and relieve the courts is therefore welcome and will mean shortening the queue for waiting for the “new start”.
The list of legislative works of the Council of Ministers has recently published assumptions of a draft law amending bankruptcy law (UD260). The main goal of the project is Increasing the efficiency of proceedingsbut above all At the last stage, and thus the creditors' repayment plan.
Repayment plan under the supervision of creditors
We would like to remind you that one of the possible paths in consumer bankruptcy is the establishment by the court. repayment plan. If the debtor is able to support himself and, in addition, even partially repaying his obligations, the court determines the amount that he will be obliged to transfer to creditors. If the court does not find guilt or gross negligence on the debtor's side, the period of implementation of the repayment plan may not exceed 3 years. Otherwise, this period ranges from 3 to a maximum of 7 years.
The court is supervised by the implementation of the repayment plan. It was to him that fallen sends reports and “confesses” from funds transferred to creditors. The project assumes A complete change of approach. Since it is in the interest of creditors to receive payment, they should verify whether the debtor is implementing the plan. “The abolition of court supervision ex officio does not bring any risk on the side of creditors, due to the equipment of them with legal protection measures, thanks to which they can initiate court supervision activities over the performance of the repayment plan,” it was indicated in the discussion of the assumptions of the project.
“The court is obliged to repeal the repayment plan, even if it is properly executed, but the bankrupt did not submit the annual report
(…) This solution is ineffective because it can lead to the repayment plan, even if the creditors do not want it. In practice This happens for reasons not related to the bankruptwhen he is a digitally excluded person and cannot submit a report by the ICT system to handle court proceedings, “added in the project presentation.
The expert comments: “It's a good idea”
– Undoubtedly, transferring the burden of analysis to the creditor and verifying whether the debtor performs a creditors repayment plan is a good idea. Today, de facto courts are flooded with reports on the implementation of the repayment plan, which the bankrupt submits by the end of April each year (we are talking about tens of thousands of letters on a national scale, most often covering extensive bank statements). The legislator rightly assumes that the court should act (e.g. repeal the repayment plan) when it is signaled by a creditor who has not received payment as part of the repayment plan, because in this case the private interest (creditor), and not the public interest, dominates – says lawyer Łukasz Lewandowski, restructuring advisor and director at the DSK DEPA Kuźmiak Jackowski office.
Similarly, the expert assesses other of the proposed changes. The project provides, among others Simplification of steps related to the redemption of liabilities after the implementation of the repayment plan, transferring some activities to the assistants of the judge or a judge secretariat employee.
– The project shows the trend of relieving bankruptcy courts in the scope of verification of the repayment plan, becoming validation of the provisions to enforce the repayment plan by law, etc. All this should lead to more time and “processing power” decisions regarding strictly substantive activities. This trend is supported in the insolency doctrine, to such an extent that today there are concepts of replacing courts by trustee as part of bankruptcy proceedings of consumers (e.g. the idea that the trustee announces the so -called consumer bankruptcy instead of a court) – comments Łukasz Lewandowski.
Faster release from the “fifle of the bankrupt”
A particularly important solution for the bankrupt may be
Changing the date of “visibility” of data in the National Register of Debt. The project provides for shortening this period up to 3 years From the date of announcement of information on the date on which the fallen obligations were discontinued by law.
– Establishment of debt after 3 years from the repayment plan is a good idea, in particular in the context of the current policy of banks, which fallen consumers stigmatize much longer (up to 5 years after the repayment plan), excluding access to credit, loan, leasing, which is crucial in our economic model – emphasizes Łukasz Lewandowski.
– In my opinion, the direction of these changes is consistent with the idea of the second chance, but for full effectiveness it also requires changes in banking law, in the scope of blurring information processed by the Credit Information Bureau (BIK). In addition, I believe that the seizure date should be shortened to 1 year in the form of blurring a fine of the fine, with the seizure period would be suspended if the creditor submits an application to repeal the creditors' repayment plan due to the lack of payment – adds the expert.
