If you have overdue invoices unpaid by your contract partners, you have the possibility to recover the unreceived debt by legal actions. The actions we can use for the recovery of outstanding amounts (unreceived debts) are: payment injunction procedure, request with low value and action in claims.
We can use any of these legal actions for the recovery of your receivables, but there are a few differences between these actions. Thus, depending on each case we will choose the optimal solution adapted to your situation.
In this article we will treat the payment injunction procedure and in the next articles we will describe the other procedures for recovery of receivables, respectively the request with low value and the action in claims.
The payment injunction procedure is regulated by articles 1014-1025 Civil Procedural Code. This procedure applies if you hold a certain, liquid and exigible receivable, which means that you have fiscal invoices which exceeded the payment deadline, are unpaid and are assimilated by your debtor by signing them.
Prior to the start of payment injunction procedure, the law provides the obligation to warn the debtor, respectively by forwarding him/her a prior warning either by bailiff or by registered letter, with declared content and acknowledgement of receipt (art. 1015 Civil Procedural Code). By prior warning we give your debtor a payment deadline of 15 days, calculated from the reception of warning by him/her. The failure to fulfil this procedure leads to the sanction of inadmissibility of payment injunction request.
If the debtor does not comply with the warning and does not pay the outstanding debt in the deadline granted, we can introduce against him/her the payment injunction to the competent court of law. In this case, apart from the debt, we can request the debtor also the payment of contract penalties. At request we will enclose the supporting documents of the receivable, as well as other documents which show the amount of receivable or a recognition of the debt by the debtor, and the proof of fulfilment of prior procedure. In case of payment injunction, in rules of evidence only the documents, fiscal invoices, contract, correspondence between the Parties are admitted.
As for the statement of defence by which the debtor contests the receivable, it can be submitted by the debtor at least 3 days before the hearing. It is not communicated to the claimant creditor, who has the obligation to take knowledge of its contents from the case file.
At the end of procedure, the court of law will pronounce a payment injunction which will contain the payment deadline, which can be established between 10 and 30 days from the date of communication of injunction. In case of partly admission of request, for the remaining claims you can make a separate request, respectively an action in claims. Against the payment injunction, the debtor can file an action for cancellation.
The payment injunction is binding, even if it is contested with action for cancellation and has temporary res judicata until the resolution of action for cancellation.