Conditions necessary to issue a court order

The following conditions must be fulfilled before issuing a court order: 

[Image]  Your own reminder activity has been unsuccessful
[Image]  The claim is valid
[Image]  The debtor is insolvent
 
Your own reminder activity has been unsuccessful
The following conditions must be fulfilled before you apply for a legal court order:

  • The claim should be proven through a contract, bill or comparable document.

  • The debtor’s residence should be known, otherwise delivery of the court order will be unsuccessful.

  • You should have reminded the debtor at least once while providing a new deadline and the debtor must be in default of payment. The following link provides an overview of the time flow for typical dunning procedures:
    [Image]  Effective dunning

  • Before you begin the dunning process, your last reminder should threaten the debtor with taking legal action.

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The claim is valid

If the debtor files an objection against the court order or enforcement order, the courts will check whether your claim is justified. A court order should only be applied for claims which are provable against the debtor.

A claim will be considered as invalid even if it actually exists but cannot be proven before the court. In this case the creditor (or respectively the person who applied the court order) must pay the court costs and the legal expenses that arise during the dunning procedure. 

If there are doubts concerning the validity of parts of the original claim, you should consider not including these parts in your claim to be collected using a court order.

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The debtor is insolvent
Insolvency of the debtor – If a creditor’s claim is valid but the debtor is unable to pay at this point of time, the creditor will be left with the damages caused by default (i.e. the dunning charges). It is possible to collect these expenses at a later point of time when the debtor is solvent again. If it is clear that the debtor is permanently without income and does not have any assets, it is not effective to issue a court order. However, keep in mind that there is the possibility to proceed against the debtor for up to 30 years when you request an enforcement order. Otherwise, your claims will expire within two to four years.

Debt Bankruptcy – If you know or assume that the debtor is about to file for bankruptcy, you should issue a court order as quickly as possible. The enforcement order then provides you with a “title” to use to recover your debts from the bankruptcy assets. Especially in this case, you should consider applying for a court order online because it is then possible to issue a court order within a few working days.

[Image]  Advantages and features of the automated dunning procedure
All information is presented to the best of our knowledge. We assume no responsibility for its correctness

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