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3 REASONS TO CHOOSE ORDER FOR PAYMENT PROCEDURE TO COLLECT DEBTS IN HUNGARY

04 April 2023

If you, as a Hungarian company, want to recover your claim against your Hungarian debtor, there is a question of which proceedings to initiate against the debtor. In this short article we give 3 reasons why you should choose order for payment procedure for collecting claims in Hungary.

1. Order for payment – basic rules

By the order for payment procedure, you can recover overdue claims in Hungary. The procedure falls within the competence of the notaries.

We note that the parties must have a Hungarian address, and on the other hand, a claim based on a lien cannot be asserted by the order for payment procedure.

The initiation of an order for payment is mandatory in case of a claim under HUF 3 million (appr. EUR 7.500) if the monetary claim to be asserted is not based on employment relationship, civil servant relationships or similar legal relationships.

Contrary to the above, if the claim mentioned above is not the legal consequence of the establishment, modification, or termination of the employment relationship or of the employee's culpable breach of the obligations arising from the employment relationship or of a disciplinary offence, the claim can be asserted by an order for payment.

The maximum amount that can be claimed by an order for payment is HUF 30 million. (appr.: EUR 75.000)

Regarding the procedure, we note that legal persons and persons subject to the obligation to use electronic filing must submit the order for payment electronically, therefore it is worth involving a legal representative to start the procedure.

2. 3 reasons to choose order for payment

Here are 3 reasons why you should choose an order for payment even if it is not mandatory.

Simple

The acting notary public doesn’t investigate the base of the claim, whether it is lawful or not. Consequently, you should not and could not attach the documentation of the legal dispute (e.g.: contract, invoices, correspondence with the debtor.)

In the request, you should indicate only the basic details of your claim, but you do not have to present a detailed legal argument.

If your request is complete, the notary public issues the order for payment and sends it to your debtor.

Fast

If the debtor does not raise any objection in 15 days, the order for payment has the same force as a judgement from the court, and you can enforce it.

We note that procedure for enforcement can be initiated with a few clicks on the notaries’ online platform.

If the debtor sends an objection within 15 days, the procedure turns into litigation. We note that defendants submit a statement of opposition only in 6-7% of the cases.

Cost-efficiency

Moreover, order for payment is also cheap, because the duty of the procedure is only 3% of your claim, but the minimum of HUF 8.000 and the maximum HUF 300.000.

We note that if the procedure turns into litigation, an additional 3% shall be paid.