“Even before I had paid the invoice, legal proceedings had apparently been initiated and I had already been convicted in absentia. I do not know that.” Peggy Schutters (49) from Pelt, Limburg, soon lost her belongings after she lost track of an invoice of 62.74 euros for an examination at the University Hospital Gasthuisberg in Leuven. Two years later she found an invoice for 280 euros in her mailbox.
The woman tried to convince the bailiff who came to collect the debt that she knew nothing about it, but the procedure continued, she said in Nieuwsblad last year. “One day they came to seize some goods,” said Schutters. “As a result, the costs of the procedure increased to 673 euros. My lawyer then advised me to pay that amount before they came to charge all my furniture.”
Files like that of Schutters, and of thousands of other people who are in danger of getting into financial difficulties due to unpaid invoices, made bailiff Patrick Van Buggenhout question the system by which debts are collected in this country ten years ago. “In 1995 I was appointed bailiff. Already in 1996 I felt: this way of working only produces losers,” he says. The federal parliament is now approving a new law that arose from his struggle (see inset).
Even more than people who forgot an invoice, it was families who wanted an invoice but could not pay in one go that turned to Van Buggenhout. “I saw them all the time in my practice as a bailiff,” he says. “Mostly single parents, with, for example, an income of 2,000 euros, of which 830 euros went to rent, 300 euros to energy, and who also had five payment plans in place. That’s suicide. In the meantime, the costs of the legal procedures only increased, creditors never saw their money and the government could not levy taxes on them: the system was completely screwed up and created a chain that turned out badly for everyone.”
“Misuse of title”
In 2015, Van Buggenhout, in collaboration with the network of social organizations Beweging.net, launched the MyTrustO concept. “Is debt mediation a revolution?” wrote De Standaard. Instead of immediately resorting to legal procedures on behalf of creditors when people do not pay their debts, the initiative focuses fully on mediation. Anyone who is in financial trouble can have a MyTrustO bailiff draw up a scan of all their income and debts. Based on this scan, the bailiff then negotiates a “realistic” repayment plan with all creditors involved, without a summons or legal costs being involved.
Van Buggenhout became a pariah within his sector. The Chamber of Bailiffs “formally” distanced itself from the initiative and accused Van Buggenhout of abusing his “title as bailiff”. “MyTrustO does not offer any legal protection,” was the criticism. “Any creditor who wants to can still collect overdue debts, much to the debtor’s disappointment.”
“We did something new in a world that is very conservative,” Van Buggenhout looks back on that criticism. “We turned the system around: the traditional bailiff works for a creditor. We start from the debtor and look for a holistic solution. But that has consequences for our revenue model. While elsewhere five writs can be served on one debtor – one for each claimant – with us there are zero, or at most one. But there is no point in looking for money from those who don’t have it.”
Part of the solution
MyTrustO made a big difference, says the bailiff, especially when creditors – from schools to companies – started to find that it had not become more difficult to get their money back – often on the contrary. “I received responses from the academic world, leading professors supported our initiative,” says Van Buggenhout. According to him, “almost everyone in the sector is now convinced that things have to change”. “Bailiff is an honorable profession, but the perception is wrong. These laws will improve our image. We will never be popular, but by focusing more on mediation, we can become part of the solution to help people out of poverty.”
What does the new law say?
Bailiffs are now obliged to put forward “amicable solutions” before initiating legal proceedings. Every summons to collect debts must contain information about possible alternatives, such as requesting payment terms, starting a collective debt settlement or assistance from the OCMW. “This must be in clear, understandable language,” says Minister of Justice Paul Van Tigchelt (Open VLD). An investigation into the payment capacities of debtors will also be mandatory, “to make a first distinction between people who do not want to pay and people who cannot pay” – and to avoid new procedures being initiated against people who are already in debt mediation. “The basic principle is that people and companies that cannot pay debts should not get into even deeper trouble by collecting them,” says Van Tigchelt. (poj)
