As the traditional Chinese saying goes, “Don’t let your credit/debit slip into the New Year”. In a general sense it means that before Spring Festival, all debts or credits shall be cleared, otherwise bad luck will follow the debtor and the creditor for the whole year. As 2017 is ending and Spring Festival is coming, we will below introduce a few ways to collect your debt.
1. Non-litigation
Besides sending messages, WeChat messages or emails, you can do:
DEBT COLLECTION LETTER: In the event that the text message and email fails, we should adopt a more formal method, the payment collection letter, which is the letter of claim for payment issued by creditor to debtor and which shall contain a clear description of the debt, to be sent by EMS. It’s important to remind also that the waybill shall be well kept.
LAWYER’S LETTER: Should the counterparty refuse to repay the debt upon receiving your debt collection letter, we suggest to proceed with the lawyer’s letter, to have professional lawyers send a collection request for repayment in the name of the lawyer to the debtors, meanwhile, a lawyer’s letter can also terminate the statute of limitation.
2. Litigation
If all abovementioned methods fail, unfortunately, it’s time to sue for your money.
INJUNCTION: The legal document made by the Court according to the creditor’s application to urge the debtor to complete repayment. Pros: lower cost, judicial procedure is not mandatory, if the debtor fails to repay within the set period, the creditor can directly apply for the execution of the enforcement. Cons: it must be conducted in a scenario where both parties have no other disputes and the application can be duly served, once the debtor lodges an objection, the court tends to terminate the Injunction procedure. Limited by its practical value, its usage rate is not high.
LITIGATION (OR ARBITRATION): Litigation is a common practice in actual cases, namely, entrusting lawyers to lodge a plaint and evidences, etc. in order to obtain effective legal documents (verdict or mediation decision). Whereas arbitration can only be submitted to a chosen Arbitration Committee by Arbitration agreement or Arbitration Terms agreed by both parties, a procedure often used in commercial activities.
PRESERVATION OF PROPERTY: The main methods include freezing bank account(s), block real estate or movable assets of the debtor. The purpose of the preservation of property is to prevent the debtor to transfer assets therefore the effective legal document can be well executed. In practice, the preservation of property is considered as the most practical and most important procedure in realizing the credit.
EXECUTION OF ENFORCEMENT: It doesn’t mean your credit is 100% safe, even if you’ve got the verdict (award) in your favor after litigation or Arbitration. If the debtor still refuses to pay, you’ll still have to apply for execution of enforcement. By then, if the proper preservation of property has been taken in advance, this credit can be executed well, otherwise, it will be very difficult or even fail to execute.
Therefore, you may find it necessary to look for assistance from professional lawyers and choose the right way to realize your credit. Due to the complexity of the procedures, we can only give you the direction here; for more details, please write to our experts via info@dandreapartners.com.