Recovery of receivables in Romania

The commercial arbitration is a form of alternative jurisdiction to usual courts of law in Romania and does not apply in disputes concerning the civil status of the individual, the capacity of persons, succession debates, family relations, as well as the rights over which they cannot dispose of.

Procedure in front of the court or arbitration in Romania

The contracting parties may insert into the contract the arbitration clause. The arbitration court or arbitrator may be determined based on the law or consent between the parties who wish to appoint a certain person or persons to deciding their dispute. In Romania, you may choose that your dispute is judged, for example, by the The Court of International Commercial Arbitration attached to the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Romania (www.arbitration.ccir.ro).

The proceeding in front of the Arbitration Court will be decided by one or three arbitrators.

In order to remunerate the arbitration services rendered by the Court of International Commercial Arbitration attached to the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Romania, there will be charged a registration fee in amount of EUR 150, as well as an arbitration fee consisting of an administrative fee and arbitrators’ fee.

The arbitrator’s fee has a fixed part and a variable amount which may fluctuate between 0,3 and 5% of the claimed amount. In order to calculate the fee, you may consult the link: www.arbitration.ccir.ro

The arbitrator decision is an enforceable title and may be enforced in the same mode as a Court decision.

Small/uncontested claims in the judicial procedure

In case of amounts up to RON 10,000 (approx. EUR 2,000), there is a special small claims procedure to follow. By filling in a type form, attaching the relevant written evidence and paying a duty stamp of RON 200 (approx. EUR 42), you invest the judge with the case. The presence of the parties is not necessary, and the decision will be ruled in approximative 3-4 months.

In case the creditor has clear proof related to his claim and the amount is uncontested by the debtor, liquid and enforceable, would be to file a payment injunction request. The duty stamp is the same as the one mentioned for the small claims’s procedure, respectively RON 200 (approx. EUR 42), but the procedure is more formal and may last up to 6-7 months. The parties may be present at hearings and may present oral/written arguments.

If you need to present in Court more evidence, you have the option to follow the common civil procedure. The duty stamp is calculated based on the value of the claim (a fixed base and a percentual part), as per the provisions of the Government Ordinance no. 80/2013. The length of the procedure depends on the evidence adduced. In complex files, the procedure may take up to 1 year or more. Due to the complexity of the process, juridical support of a lawyer is needed and highly recommended.

Enforcement proceeding

The enforcement proceeding may be initiated by the creditor once the Court decision is final and enforceable. If the debtor will not execute the Court decision voluntarily, the creditor will request the support of a bailiff. For Bucharest, the list of the public bailiffs is mentioned here: www.cejbuc.ro.

Once the file is open, the bailiff requests to the competent judge the approval of the enforcement.

Related to the costs, the stamp duty applicable for the request is RON 20 (for each enforceable title).

Related to the fee of the appointed bailiff, usually there is a fixed fee which is advanced by the creditor and the rest of the amount is paid only if the debt is collected. If possible, the costs will be recovered from the debtor.

Publicly available information about client´s indebtedness

A simple search on the Courts’ portals in Romania, the portal of fiscal authorities and requesting information from the Trade Register Office where your partner is registered may outline information which will determine your decision of entering or not into a business relation.

• Within the Trade Register you may find useful information about the structure of the company, registered seat, working points, directors etc. – portal.onrc.ro
• Details related to the insolvency procedure may be found within the Trade register portal – portal.onrc.ro and on the Courts portal – www.portal.just.ro
• Details related to the financial situation of your partners may be found here – mfinante.gov.ro
• On this website, mj.romarhiva.ro, you can find information related to the receivables pledge registration