LOWER HOUSE TO DISCUSS AMENDMENTS TO DISTRESS LAW

ZAGREB, March 11 (Hina) - The Croatian National Sabor's House of Representatives is to discuss amendments to the distress law on Thursday. Main goals of draft amendments to the Distress Law are to shorten and accelerate the process of distress and enable creditors to receive what they are entitled to, in a simple and secure way, after they claim payments of a debt. This draft bill is one of the proposals given by the Croatian government as a part of the entire programme for solving the illiquidity and insolvency problems. During the two and a half years the current Distress law has been in effect, it has been demonstrated that distress processes were still too long, which in particular led to the current illiquidity problem, said the deputy Justice Minister, Snjezana Bagic. New amendments, according to which the distress can be conducted even before a final ruling of the court, should contribute to accelerating a process of a forced collection (of debts). For this purpose, a price of estate which must be sold would be reduced and the deadline for a hearing would be set earlier. According to the amendments a period between two hearings would be reduced from 30 to 25 days. A third hearing is going to be implemented, which is to be held within 15 to 30 days after the second hearing and according to which estate could be sold regardless of an achieved price. The amendments would also institute a new rule according to which a debtor is obligated to give a statement in court on where his property is, in case the property could not be found. (hina) it ms