What is a personal bankruptcy ?
The bankruptcy solution mainly concerns legal entities registered with the commercial register as a sole proprietorship, but natural persons can also use it. This is referred to as personal bankruptcy.
Natural persons, who are therefore not registered in the commercial register, are nevertheless subject to certain conditions:
- They must be able to demonstrate their over-indebtedness
- The debtor must also prove that no out-of-court settlement could be reached with the various creditors. Personal bankruptcy is the last possible solution for an indebted person.
- The debtor also has to pay around CHF 4,000 in costs. Indeed, the procedure for a personal bankruptcy involves a judge, the bankruptcy office and several other official publications with the SOGC (Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce).
Feel free to check out this article if you'd like more information on the difference between debt and over-indebtedness.
Therefore, if people affected by over-indebtedness and insolvency find themselves unable to repay their debts and lawsuits, they can declare their situation as well as their wish to file a personal bankruptcy with the debt collection office in their region.
The relevant debt collection office will then initiate bankruptcy proceedings.
This procedure consists of drawing up a list of all the debtor's creditors and reaching a certain agreement with them. This agreement, as far as possible and within the law, will consist of seizing the debtor's valuable assets in order to repay his creditors and therefore his debts as much as possible. These assets can be objects as well as real estate.
Consequences of Personal Bankruptcy
Personal bankruptcy can have a beneficial effect on the standard of living of the indebted person, in addition to offering better legal protection.
When a person is declared bankrupt, pending debt collections and seizures against the debtor are automatically put on hold.
Thus, the debtor will no longer be able to receive an order to pay in respect of debts incurred before the bankruptcy.
As far as a legal person is concerned, responsible for a company, the latter will unfortunately no longer be able to use the assets of its company and thus continue to run the company, because these assets will be considered seizable by the bankruptcy office.
However, any employee who has resorted to bankruptcy will be able to continue his activity and freely dispose of his salary.
However, it is important to know that declaring bankruptcy is not a drastic way to reduce your debt.
At the end of the bankruptcy proceedings, if all the debtor's lawsuits have not been liquidated by the seizure of assets, the debtor will receive a certificate of default that will show the unpaid amount, thus representing the IOU.
This certificate of default will allow creditors, for 20 years, to relaunch debt enforcement proceedings in the future, in the event that the debtor's financial situation improves and they wish to claim their due again.
Personal bankruptcy therefore corresponds to a suspension of your debts, and not a cancellation.
The Best Alternative After Bankruptcy
When a bankruptcy procedure is over and there are still balances in deeds of default, it is worth contacting the creditors again in order to negotiate the implementation of a payment arrangement that could finally allow the debtor to settle all his debts, or even negotiate the certificates of default of assets downwards.
Our Solvable team is a specialist in the field of the implementation of remediation plans, and therefore your trusted solution to restart from a new perspective.
Cleaning up your debts means freeing yourself from a weight and finally being able to get out of the tunnel.
Our advisors will be happy to answer you on 021 620 60 02
You can also apply online, without obligation.