Restrictions on enforcement against real estate serving the debtor’s housing needs in the light of the amendment to the Code of Civil Procedure of May 14, 2020

Abstract

The necessity to protect debtors with regard to meeting their basic life needs, including ensuring a place of residence in epidemic emergencies, led to the introduction by the national legislator of new regulations (also in the field of real estate auctions), rules aimed at satisfying the debtor’s housing needs. The consequence of the aforementioned legislative actions is the addition of a new provision to the Polish Code of Civil Procedure – Art. 9521 with effect from May 30, 2020. The purpose of this study is a detailed presentation of the restrictions on enforcement against real estate introduced by the amendment to the Polish Code of Civil Procedure of May 14, 2020, aimed at satisfying the debtor’s housing needs, taking into account the problems caused by the application of new legal norms. The solutions discussed are a response to the situations repeatedly found in practice, in which the submission by the creditor of an application for enforcement against real estate was used to harass the debtor and therefore undoubtedly deserve approval. The possibility of using enforcement measures aimed at real estate with the view to satisfy the debtor’s residential purposes in the enforcement of small claims, is clearly contradictory to the basic assumptions of the debtor’s protection against enforcement infringing his personal dignity. The new rules on enforcement against real estate serving to satisfy the debtor’s housing needs, strengthen considerably the position of debtors in the course of the execution process. It is made at the cost of significant limitation of the possibility to satisfy the creditors with the use of this type of enforcement process and postponement of debt collection in time. The only valuable component of the debtor’s property is often the residential property, which makes property execution one of the most effective methods of execution itself. Limiting execution possibilities of these properties, may in practice mean for many creditors an inability to satisfy the claimed debt for a long time and the necessity to raise additional costs and lead to an increase in the number of unsuccessful executions. However, the envisaged legal solutions, with respect to debtors remaining in a deteriorating economic situation caused by an epidemic threat, in the sense of an extraordinary and only temporary threat, should be assessed positively as a rule, subject to their episodic nature.