The government wants make life easier for creditors. It is looking to do this through new rules of remuneration for subcontractors and lessening the burden on courts issuing payment orders.

It should be easier for creditors to recover what is rightfully theirs. Whether it turns out this way in practice remains to be seen. For now, there is a draft by the Ministry of Development of legal solutions which the authors expect will facilitate recovering receivables, and especially support small businesses in this.

The very name of the project by the Ministry of Development (MD) says what it is all about. It is the Act on an Amendment of Certain Acts for the Purpose of Facilitating Debt Recovery. At present, the draft is at the stage of discussions among ministries and public consultations. In the opinion of its authors, the proposed regulations should also prevent payment obstructions because they also concern the stage of entering into liabilities. For companies from the small and medium-sized business sector (SMB), three solutions may be of particular interest.

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An order to pay issued by a notary will be enforceable. An enforcement clause can also be issued by a notary, although by a different one. “Among other things, this should reduce such orders being issued rashly, and possibly abused,” states Bartłomiej Bronisz, an attorney at the law offices of FKA Furtek Komosa Aleksandrowicz.

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Bartłomiej Bronisz, an attorney at the law offices of FKA Furtek Komosa Aleksandrowicz, explains that a notary would have the right, upon a motion by a creditor, to issue an order to pay where the claim is not groundless, the circumstances of the case do not raise any doubts, and further, where there is no difficulty in determining the location of the debtor and serving it with the order, and where the recovery of the amount due is not dependent on the creditor rendering any service for the benefit of the debtor.

“This is a good regulation. Notaries will issue orders only in the simplest disputes over payment, and this will not become an alternative to the common courts, which, despite their faults, do provide greater procedural protection for each party to a dispute,” Bartłomiej Bronisz comments.

The FKA attorney points out that, as with orders to pay issued in writ-of-payment proceedings, a debtor will be able to file an objection to a notarial order to pay, in which case it will lose its legal force within the scope contested. In such a case, the notary will refer to case files to the court.

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Prepared by: Iwona Jackowska (PB)