As on 01 June 2017, the act dated 7 April 2017 on changing certain acts to facilitate debt recovery becomes effective. The purpose of the new regulations is to improve reliability of evaluating payment capacity of the partner and financial standing of the debtor, as well as to improve effectiveness of receiving debt payment.
For this purpose, the regulations prepared amend a number of acts, mainly the Civil Code (CC) and Code of Civil Procedure (CCP).
AMENDMENTS IN THE CIVIL CODE
As for the solutions applicable in the act, first of all please note the change in the rules regarding joint and several liability of the building work investor and contractor for remuneration of subcontractors. Starting from the effective date, the Investor will be jointly and severally with the contractor (general contractor) held liable for payment of remuneration due to the subcontractor for construction work completed by him the detailed subject matter of which had been indicated to the investor by the contractor or subcontractor before commencement of this work.
The joint and several liability of the investor will be excluded only in the case of raising an objection with respect to the the contractor or subcontractor within thirty days from receipt of the notification from the subcontractor. The failure to raise the objection within the statutory period will result in taking over joint liability together with the contractor.
The discussed amendment stipulates also a restriction on the level of the subcontractor’s remuneration covered by the joint liability of the investor the upper limit of which is the level of remuneration for the construction work the subject matter of which results, as appropriate, from the notification or the main agreement, payable to the contractor.
AMENDMENTS IN THE CODE OF CIVIL PROCEDURE
As for amendments made in provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure, first of all please note the increase of the upper threshold of the value of the subject matter of dispute in cases recognized in the writ-of-payment proceedings, from PLN 10,000 up to PLN 20,000.
In addition, the regulations concerning proceedings to secure claims will be also amended with respect to effects of infringing the ban on selling or encumbering real estates imposed as the securing means. The amendment defines in detail the consequences of taking legal actions by the liable person contrary to the ban on selling or encumbering a real estate which has an established mortgage register or collective ownership right to the residential property. In the current legal status, the consequence of taking a legal action by the person liable contrary to the ban is not expressly defined in legal regulations, and the judicial practice and doctrine approach this issue not in a uniform way. The regulations becoming effective state clearly that any legal action taken contrary to the ban on selling or encumbering the real estates which does not have an established mortgage register or the mortgage register of which got lost or destroyed is invalid. The legal action taken contrary to the ban on selling the collective ownership right to the residential property will be invalid, if an entry is made in the mortgage register about the warning concerning the ban of selling these rights.