Notarial Deed as an Enforcement Order in the Polish Legal System

Abstract

The author discusses the importance of a notarial deed as an enforceable title as a basis for the initiation of judicial enforcement in civil cases in the Polish legal system. The study discusses all types of notarial deeds, which constitute debtor’s declarations of intent enabling the enforcement of debt by the creditor by means of state coercion, bypassing time-consuming court proceedings. In practice, their content and subsequent enforcement in the course of enforcement proceedings raises many interpretation doubts. The author concludes that the literature indicates four requirements that should be fulfilled by a notarial deed to constitute an enforcement order: the preparation by the notary public in terms of their powers and the form provided for by law, the exact specification of the performance, the exact date of performance, indication of the creditor and debtor whose declaration of voluntary submission to enforcement must be made in a manner that raises no doubts. In addition to constitutive features, the notarial deed in the cases specified in Art. 777 points 4-6 of Code of Civil Procedure may include additional optional provisions if this is the will of the debtor. In particular, the debtor may: 1) submit to enforcement only against certain assets; 2) indicate the deadline after which the debtor submits to enforcement (later than the date of performance); 3) make submission to enforcement subject to a condition, e. g. the creditor’s prior fulfilment of mutual consideration; 4) limit the permissible methods of enforcement, e.g. enforcement against remuneration for work. The author emphasizes that even if the court dismisses or rejects the application for granting an enforcement clause, this does not change the status of this deed as an official document. In the Polish legal system, this means that it can be used to obtain a payment order in payment-order proceedings.