Revolutionary change of law. Who will gain and who will lose?
The fiction of "service" will officially end, and the letters from the court will be served by the bailiff for a fee. ZUS, a bank or even a neighbor will help you find the debtor's address. For claims in simplified proceedings up to the value of PLN 20,000 court fees will be as high as 1000 PLN.
These are amendments to civil proceedings that were adopted by the Sejm at the beginning of July, taking into account the amendments proposed by the Senate, thus completing the work on the bill. The changes, which are now waiting for the President's signature, will enter into force later this year. In the case of some provisions of the amended Code of Civil Procedure, we will only have 14 days to adapt to the new legal realities.
So what fees do entities wanting to recover their receivables have to prepare for?
As the experts of the Polish Debt Management Association (PZW) point out, the increase in costs will severely affect not only creditors and the debt collection industry, but may also have a slowdown on the domestic economy, which is already feeling the effects of increasing payment gridlocks.
The bailiff will look for a debtor
The result of work on the amendment to the Code of Civil Procedure may introduce many changes to the legal system, which so far has been a determinant of action for all those who wanted to pursue their claims in court. Currently, any unclaimed procedural document that is double-advised is deemed to have been served. This is called a fiction of delivery to be removed by the amended Code of Civil Procedure If the changes approved by the Sejm become effective, the service of such letters will be handled by a bailiff, whose task will also be to search for the current address of the debtor. Bailiffs will have more duties who will take over the role of postmen in this case. The duration of the entire procedure will also extend.
In the planned amendment, the legislator shifts the burden of delivering the claim to the claimant and gives the defendant an effective tool to paralyze the proceedings. If the defendant fails to collect the summons twice, the plaintiff will be required to provide the court with confirmation of the document's service by the bailiff or provide the defendant's current address or evidence that the defendant is at the address indicated in the petition within two months. In most cases, the plaintiff will have to report to the bailiff and pay a fee of PLN 60. If the bailiff, after taking field action, does not provide the letter, the plaintiff may ask him to determine the defendant's address, for an additional fee of PLN 40. The bailiff will then indicate the addresses that he has established through inquiries at banks, credit unions, pension and tax authorities.
The fee for the search for the debtor's place of residence and the service of the letter to him, however, is not all. The bailiff will be entitled to an additional PLN 20 if the distance between the seat of the office and the place of activities exceeds 10 km. It turns out, therefore, that the sum of the costs for delivering one letter from the creditor to the indebted person may amount to as much as PLN 120.
Whoever decides to get their money back will have to incur ever greater costs. There are also great doubts as to whether the bailiff can obtain information from other enforcement proceedings he conducts and how he can obtain this knowledge in other ways.
However, the notice will not disappear
If the attempted service proves ineffective, and the bailiff determines that he has the debtor's correct address, he will place a notice in his mailbox, setting a 14-day period for collecting the letter. After this deadline, the letter is deemed delivered and the bailiff returns the letter to the creditor together with information about the arrangements made and the date of delivery.
The same situation will occur if the indebted person does not live at the given address. Then the letter also returns to the entity ordering its delivery. The creditor, within two months of the service of the obligation, may submit to the court a confirmation of the service of the letter to the debtor, return the letter and indicate the current address of the debtor or provide evidence that the defendant lives at a different address. If neither of these factors occurs, the proceedings will be suspended and discontinued after a further three months.
Court fees will increase at least twice
The new regulations will drastically increase the amount of court fees, especially for claims not exceeding the amount of PLN 20,000. PLN, i.e. in the so-called simplified procedure. How will it work in practice? For example, a fee of PLN 30 will be charged for the value of the claim up to PLN 500, and not up to PLN 2,000 as before. zloty. In turn, cases over 15,000 PLN will be charged with court costs in the amount of PLN 1,000. Fees for disputes in which entrepreneurs will pursue high claims will amount to 5%. the value of the claim, not exceeding the amount of PLN 200,000. zloty.
According to the draft prepared by the Ministry of Justice, the fee will depend on the range in which the amount of the claimed claim is. In this respect, the recently adopted amendments provide for the simplification of the rules for determining the amount of fees, according to seven (instead of the original twelve) thresholds. However, it still means a several-fold increase in the costs of pursuing property claims, which will be of significant importance both for consumers and entrepreneurs forced to pursue claims in court.
For example, a package of 1000 cases with a value of PLN 4001-5000 each, referred to court proceedings in the writ proceedings, in accordance with the current legal status, means the necessity to pay court fees in the total amount below PLN 50,000. After the amendment, the total cost will be as much as 400 thousand. PLN - which gives an almost 8-fold increase. Previously, creditors could count on reimbursement of 3/4 of the costs incurred when the order for payment was validated. Now, not only will the fees be significantly increased, but also the provisions providing for the reimbursement of fees are repealed.
Changes to fees in proceedings and costly justification
The elimination of the return of 3/4 of the court fee in the event of the order for payment becoming final in the writ proceedings is not the only change that awaits us. Fee refunded by the court, incl. in the case of return of the claim, it will be reduced by the "handling" fee in the amount of PLN 30. Also, the difference will not be refunded if it is lower than the cost of returning it.
What, then, with the costs for the justification and the so-called office fees?
Until now, the receipt of justification from the judgment was free of charge, now each time a fee of PLN 100 will be charged. The costs will be able to be booked towards the appeal, but for the creditors this means an increase in the costs related to court proceedings. We can also expect an increase in costs for office fees. After the amendment, it will be PLN 20 for each commenced 10 pages of the copy and PLN 20 for each commenced 20 pages of photocopies.
PZW experts are sure that the upcoming changes in court fees and the issue of deliveries will have a large impact on our entire economy. Enterprises wishing to recover their debts will have to take into account the enormous costs of proceedings, and this will certainly not solve the problem of payment gridlocks, which ultimately affect the finances of each of us.
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