Enforcement proceedings


The decisions of various courts and authorities resolving legal disputes as well as certain claims based on certain documents must be enforced by way of judicial enforcement proceedings, a nonlitigous proceeding, The rules of court execution proceedings are laid down in Act LII of 1994 (hereinafter: Judicial Enforcement Act).

Judicial enforcement proceedings are of two stages, namely ordering and implementation of enforcement.

Enforcement proceedings are instituted at the request of the party requesting enforcement.

The court with competence to order enforcement will issue the enforcement order (enforcement sheet, enforcement clause, attachment order, transfer order), where the general conditions of enforcement are fulfilled, and therefore the enforcement resolution sets forth an obligation (condemnation), furthermore if it is final and nonappealable, or where the resolution is preliminarily enforceable, and the deadline for fulfilment has elapsed.

The party requesting enforcement must initiate enforcement of resolutions passed by a notary public (e.g. demand for payment), and attachment of an enforcement clause to notary public documents before a notary public. 

As a general rule, enforcement is implemented by an indepenent court bailiff in judicial enforcement proceedings.

In cases where the person or entity requesting enforcement knows the bank account number or the employer of the debtor, this person or entity may seek to have a transfer order or an attachment order issued. In this case, no bailiff is involved in the procedure, and the court will send the enforcement document directly to the acccount holding financial institute, employer or disburser to effect attachment.

In other cases, the court (notary public) ordering enforcement will send the enforcement document to the independent bailiff as per the residence, registered seat of the debtor or in certain cases as per the location of the assets that may be subjected to enforcement, to effect enforcement.

As a general rule, costs incurring in judicial enforcement are to be advanced by the person requesting enforcement, to be borne by the debtor.

In enforcing money claims, the asset rights of the debtor are restricted to allow collection of the claim. The bailiff may subject the bank account held with the financial service provider, the wage, tangible property (motor vehicle) or real estate of the debtor to enforcement. The bailiff will hold an auction to sell the seized tangible property and the real estate, if the statutory conditions are met. 

The Enforcement Act sets forth special rules for the implementation of enforcement, where the purpose of such enforcement is to have a certain action performed, or to act in a particular way, to tolerate or discontinue an action.

The person or entity requesting enforcement or any other interested party whose right or legitimate interest is violated by an action or omission by the bailiff may submit an enforcement demurrel, to be submitted to the bailiff. The bailiff must forward the same to the court implementing enforcement. The court with competence to implement enforcement is generally not identical with the court having ordered enforcement, because the implementing court is the district court as per the registered seat of the bailiff.