2023-08-11 12:00:38
The costs generated for late payment will be further regulated. This means the end of excessive reminder costs and abusive collection methods.
Energy deposit, hospital bill, unpaid parking… nowadays, a (small) debt from any company can quickly turn into a major expensewith the addition of reminder mail costsd’ushersd’collection agencies or evenlawyers.
However, at from September 1, 2023lThe first reminder of a debt will be free. In concrete terms, upon receipt of the reminder, the consumer will have 14 days to pay off his debt, without any additional costs.
Lump sum ceiling
If this debt remains unpaid at the end of this period, then late payment interest and/or fixed costs may be applied. These will now be capped.
In detail: for one Rising remaining due less than or equal to 150 euros, a maximum of 20 euros might be added.
For the amounts included between 150 and 500 eurosa ceiling of 30 euros plus ten percent of the amount due will apply.
This cap increases to 65 euros increased by 5% of the amount due on the top edge 500 euros with a maximum of 2,000 euros if the amount still due is greater than 500 euros.
Amicable recovery
Any activity of amicable collection will begin from now on by a formal notice of the consumer. This formal notice will have two effects.
First of all, depending on certain situations (contestation they said this, request for a clearance plan or ask for debt mediation), no further collection action amicable agreement cannot be executed for a certain period.
“We have introduced ‘stop buttons’ which protect the consumer and which offer him the possibility of finding solutions adapted to his situation”, explains Pierre-Yves Dermagne, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Economy and Labour.
We have introduced ‘stop buttons’ which protect the consumer and offer him the possibility of finding solutions adapted to his situation.
“Each stop button corresponds to a deadline. The debt collector is prohibited from taking any action or recovery measure during this time to avoid worsening the situation of a consumer in difficulty”, he added.
Secondly, debt collectors – namely lawyers and bailiffs – will now be subject to new obligations and placed under the supervision of the FPS Economy (as is already the case for collection agencies).
Therefore, they will also be subject to the control of the economic inspectorate and therefore to the penalties provided for by the Code of Economic Law.
Debt collectors will be notably required to verify that the amounts of the indemnity clauses claimed to the consumer comply with the limits set by law.
Without this mandatory prior check, a debt collector will not be able to put the consumer on notice.
Caution
Attention, this new legislation applies to contracts concluded from September 1, 2023.
The obligation to have a first free reminder will apply to all contracts only from December 1, 2023.
“If you receive a reminder on September 5, 2023 and this reminder concerns a contract concluded on March 5, 2023, then the obligation to have a first free reminder will not yet apply”, warns the FPS Economy.
“It will be necessary to wait until December 1, 2023 for the obligation to have a first free reminder, as well as the other obligations provided for by the law on ‘consumer debt’, be applicable to all contracts.”
Victory for Testachats
“We consider this new device a real victory following years of hard work on the issue”, rejoices Julie Frère, the spokeswoman for Testachats. “In fact, we are fighting for better consumer protection in this area since March 2015.“
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