Croatia Debt Collection – No Win No Fee
Creditreform operates a global specialist International debt collections service. We have local offices and fully approved expert international debt collection agency partners in every country worldwide. All our International debt collection agency partners and offices operate on a No Win No Fee basis charging an agreed commission against monies recovered only.
– Location of office in Croatia
Zagreb
– Number of staff
7 employees
– How long been operating in Croatia
Since 1994
– What type of debts do you recover?
We recover both commercial (B2B) and consumer (B2C) debts
– Statute of limitation in Croatia
-for goods and services trade – 3 years
-for transport services – 1 year
-in case a court verdict is obtained for a certain claim: 10 years
– How EU laws effect debt collection in Croatia?
The debt collection in Croatia is handled according to all corresponding EU laws.
– How many registries in Croatia for businesses? (i.e. UK just has 1 central registry)
In Croatia, besides the Court register, there is also Register of sole proprietorships.
– What is the process in Croatia?
In order to start the process of collection in Croatia, it is necessary to have credible documents proving the justification of the claim.
First attempts are made in order to settle the debt by settlement and out off court.
In case it is not the case, legal actions are taken.
– Average length of time to collect?
The average collection time of a claim cannot be determined, as it should be divided into:
-cases that have been successfully resolved and
-cases that have been unsuccessfully resolved.
In addition, the division of successfully resolved cases by peaceful means (by agreement or out of court settlement) and successfully resolved cases in court proceedings should be made.
Further, question is whether obtaining a judgment in a court proceeding can be considered as a successfully settled case if the creditor cannot collect his claims despite the court judgment.
Generally speaking the collection time can be from few weeks to several years.
– Can late payment fees / interest be added to claims?
Under Croatian law, a creditor can claim interests and costs in addition to basic debt. In Croatian practice, such “benefits“ are mainly collected by state institutions and banks. In other cases it is very difficult to obtain a fair amount of interest and costs. It is customary for Croatian entrepreneurs to take interest and costs as a “side” thing that no one takes seriously until the moment of legal proceedings.
– Details on legal service / process in Croatia
It is important to note that court proceedings in Croatia (as in other Balkan countries) are time consuming and costly. It takes about 3-5 years to reach the first verdict in litigation. If there are appeals against a court decision, the case continues in the High court also on average 2-5 years. However, some court proceedings happen to be resolved very quickly, even in the first stage of the proceedings. This is the case where the debtor does not object to the initial motion for enforcement. Then the judgment can be obtained relatively quickly (in a few months), but usually then there is a problem of payment realization.
In Croatia, as in other Balkan countries corruption is widespread. According to all polls in the last twenty years, the citizens of Croatia have labeled the the judicary system as the most corrupt part of the country, despite Croatia’s accession to the EU in 2013.
Therefore, every effort should be made to try to resolve the case without legal action.
There are many unique requirements to recovering international debts in all countries including Estonia debt collection services which differ from the UK and therefore it is very important that cases are handled directly by our expert international debt collection agencies and not from debt collectors UK. This method of international debt collection sets Creditreform aside from the competition who in many cases try and recover debts from a UK office base only. Using the local offices and partners enables us to achieve a far greater success rate and our No Win No Fee service together with competitive commission rates against monies recovered only ensures you get the best service.
