The practice of selling bad debts to specialized companies — a fairly common phenomenon in the world. It is used mainly in the banking sector and in a situation when the process of collecting the debt becomes problematic and is associated with lengthy and costly procedures, writes UBR.
According to experts, the country actively began to develop the business to recover debts. Facilitated the adoption of amendments to various laws. Thus, the law regulating the activity of the collectors, is still there. Therefore, the debt collection firms do not always work in the legal field, and their claims are disputed in the courts.
“In Ukraine, in addition to outstanding loans, broken banks, which represent tens of billions of hryvnia, there is a second source of debt — consumer debt for municipal services”, — said the senior partner of the law firm “Kravets and partners” Rostislav Kravets.
According to lawyers, the only legitimate function of the collectors is written to remind the debtors about the balance of the debt, but many cross that line. Aided by the imperfection of the legislation. Ideas to resolve the debt market, the authorities occur from year to year, but due to the lack of a legal framework, according to experts, 20-30% of this market in the shade.
“Given that the law enforcement system is now virtually paralyzed the reform and the re-certification, to rely on protection by the state against illegal actions of collectors don’t have,” said Kravetz
The lawyer said that the collection procedure is now settled as the Civil code and law on enforcement proceedings. While existing draft laws on debt collection activities in fact untie the hands of collectors. In addition, legislative changes greatly facilitate this activity. For example, until now, if the court ruled in favor of the Bank, to recover funds could only state Executive office.
The only legitimate function of the collectors is written to remind the debtors about the balance of the debt, but many cross that line
“The problem of private executives will soon face the debtors literally in 2-3 months. Because it is very difficult to monitor the legality of actions of the private contractor,” — said the lawyer.
According to him, the private Executive working on the principle of extraterritoriality. But because the contractor from Kherson or Nikolaev could pursue foreclosure property anywhere in the Chernihiv region. And to see the materials of the case, will have to go to Kherson or Nikolaev.
Now to open the enforcement proceedings, the claimant must pay an advance payment (10% of the debt). In addition to the main compensation earnings private actors may include additional, the amount of which will be set by the claimant. Because can be large abuses by private actors, experts say.
“Approximately 95-96% of court decisions on recovery of debts is not executed. So, to say that 100% of claimants will Fund the work of performers without a guarantee of results is absurd. They might try to further the interest of the executor to collect the debt for sure,” — said the head of the consulting company William-Іnvest Expert Victor the Bear.
Ukrainian courts are still clogged with claims of banks on the outstanding loans. Although the law prohibits to dispose of assets in foreign currency debt, notaries and the state Registrar not pay attention to it. According to Kravets, such cases have tens of thousands. Banks sell billions in debts on foreign currency loans and finkompany seize property and resell it multiple times to related parties at a price that is several times below market value. And then renew that property for themselves.
“Meanwhile, according to the norms of the Civil code, a party to the foreclosure of collateral under the credit agreement (not a loan) can only be a legal entity with the appropriate license. Therefore, the assignment of requirements to individuals is illegal”, — said Kravetz.
The law prohibits to dispose of assets in foreign currency debt
But the police often do nothing, so all that remains is to go to court. Here the debtor of the provisions of the law on liability for extortion and coercion to the enforcement of civil contracts.
“It’s not so hopeless. There are mechanisms of protection. For example, you can challenge the assignment of replacement property. As jurisprudence shows, positive decisions on return of property selected financial companies quite a lot. But for this we need to actively protect their rights, and not wait that someone will protect them for you,” said Kravetz.
As for debts on housing and communal services, the main threat is writ proceedings. Any service provider for the debts of the consumer may apply to the court in simplified proceedings (without participation of the parties) to the decision to recover the debt. “Given that judges are overloaded with cases 5-6 times from the maximum possible limit, they don’t often delve into the details of the case and try to quickly resolve the dispute,” explained Kravetz.
Therefore, according to the lawyer, already there are cases when the courts decide to collect the debt from former owners. The reason is that the new owners do not pay for communal and the provider does not know about the change of owner and demands money from those who have it listed in databases.
In the result, the former owners of the apartment know what had happened only when they are stopped at the border or seize their property. So again we have to prove in court their innocence.
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Happens to the database on debtors of banks. Collectors are not allowed to make changes to the database. Therefore, even if the loan is long paid back, but in the database for some reason, the person listed as the debtor he will continue to call.
“There is no control, methods of debt collection. Therefore, it is necessary to regulate the work of collectors, up to licensing. For example, licenses to security firms have played a positive role. When there was a question about breach of licensing conditions and established standards, of the security company involved in raider attacks, was shot and left objects”, — said Victor Bear.
According to experts, need financial and legal liability collectors. For example, the threat of the criminal code envisages liability, but such cases are usually not investigated. “Reason to come home to the debtor from the collectors there. To counter them, blocking the numbers from which you call (usually every collection firms they are not more than a dozen). As well as a complete disregard for the written applications. Be sure to end the conversation with the collectors after the presentation of the caller. Don’t need to spend time on them,” advises Bear.
As has told eks-the Minister of housing 2007-2010, Chairman of the “Union of homeowners of Ukraine” Oleksiy Kucherenko, the system of debt collection works, when debtors few. Code and a lot of them, that suppliers of services fear of social protest and are not too zealous in knocking out of debt for utilities.
