Amended Rules in the Civil Procedure Code concerning the Issuance of Writs of Execution

 

The Amending Act to the Civil Procedure Code (CPC), introducing substantial changes in the procedure for issuance of a writ of execution, was promulgated in The State Gazette, No 100 of 20 December 2019. First and foremost, the time limit for filing objections was extended to one month with a view to protecting the rights of individuals affected by writs of execution. Furthermore, a one-month time limit was introduced for the appeals against document-based immediate enforcement rulings under Article 417 CPC. An additional guarantee of the rights of persons against whom an immediate enforcement order is issued is the fact that the immediate enforcement is suspended even when the creditor has filed an appeal against it.

The amendments envisage special consumer protection rules in the procedure for issuance of a writ of execution, whereby the court will monitor ex officio whether the contract with the consumer contains unfair terms in the cases in which the application for a writ of execution is based on such a contract. The same duty of the court has been introduced for all other types of proceedings under the Civil Procedure Code. The opportunity for suspending the immediate enforcement of a document-based order by providing a security of only one-third of the amount claimed is a further safeguard of consumer rights. Immediate enforcement could be suspended also without any security provided that the consumer submits documents to prove that the debt is based on unfair contract terms or has been calculated wrongly.