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Your customer is bankrupt or in reorganisation

What you do as a creditor, in what order and where. Look up the company: its page shows the court, the date of the judgment and the curator.

In a bankruptcy

The enterprise court declares the company bankrupt and appoints a curator, a lawyer who sells the assets and pays the creditors as far as the money goes. A supervising judge oversees the procedure. Nobody pays you automatically: you have to file your claim.

  1. Stop delivering on credit. Anything you still deliver after the judgment, agree it with the curator.
  2. Gather your documents. Invoices, purchase orders, the contract, delivery notes and reminders.
  3. File your claim in RegSol. At regsol.be, the Central Solvency Register: yourself with eID or itsme, or through your lawyer. State principal, interest and costs separately, and any preferential right or security you hold.
  4. Reclaim goods sold under retention of title. This has to happen before the first verification report, and the goods must still be there.
  5. Sort out the VAT. In a bankruptcy the VAT on unpaid invoices can be recovered under conditions; your accountant knows how.
  6. Follow the file. The verification report (admitted or disputed) and the curator's reports appear in RegSol. The court decides a disputed claim.

Deadlines

The judgment sets the last day to file your claim: by law at most thirty days after the judgment. It also sets the day the curator files the first verification report, the list of admitted and disputed claims. Both dates are in the publication of the judgment in the Belgian Official Gazette and in RegSol. A late claim is sometimes still possible, but its costs are yours and distributions already made stay made.

What do you get back?

First come the costs of the procedure and the debts the curator took on, then the creditors with a preferential right or security (such as the tax authorities, social security, the employees, or a bank with a pledge or mortgage). Only then come the ordinary creditors, among themselves in proportion to their claims. Often little or nothing is left for them, and a bankruptcy usually takes years.

In a judicial reorganisation

The company asks the court for protection to restructure. During the moratorium you cannot attach or enforce for debts from before the opening; your claim still exists. The judgment states when the moratorium ends; the court can extend it. There are three tracks:

Amicable settlement
The company negotiates with some creditors. The agreement binds only those who sign it.
Collective agreement
The company files a plan (deferral, partial write-off) and creditors vote on it at a hearing. If a majority approves and the court confirms it, it also binds those who voted against.
Transfer under court supervision
A court officer sells the business or part of it. Creditors are paid from the proceeds, according to their ranking.
  1. Stop collecting old debts. No attachment or enforcement while the moratorium runs.
  2. Check your amount. The company has to tell you the amount it lists you for. If it is wrong, dispute it in writing.
  3. Vote on the plan. In a collective agreement you vote at the hearing the judgment sets, or by proxy.
  4. Deliver only on clear terms. What you deliver after the opening is not covered by the moratorium.
  5. Read the file in RegSol. The plan and the documents of the procedure are there.

Under an interim administrator

The court can appoint an interim administrator when serious failings of the management threaten the continuity of the business. The company carries on and this is not an insolvency procedure: your claim remains payable and you collect as usual. It is a signal, though, to review your credit limit and payment terms, and to follow the company.

Stay informed

Follow the company on Checked (the Follow button on its page) and you are alerted to every new judgment: an extension, the approval or the closure of a reorganisation, and the closure or reversal of a bankruptcy. What reaches you by e-mail is set under Alerts.

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Frequently asked questions

How do I file a claim in a bankruptcy?

Electronically in RegSol (regsol.be), the Central Solvency Register. You sign in with eID or itsme, find the bankruptcy by the enterprise number and enter principal, interest, costs and any preferential right, with your documents attached. A lawyer can do it for you.

Until when can I file my claim?

Until the date the judgment sets, by law at most thirty days after the judgment. That date is in the publication in the Belgian Official Gazette and in RegSol. A late claim is sometimes still possible, but the costs are yours.

What is the verification report?

The list the curator files in RegSol with the claims he admits and the ones he disputes. The curator puts a disputed claim before the court.

Will I get my money back?

That depends on what the curator raises and on your ranking. The costs of the procedure and the creditors with a preferential right or security come first; ordinary creditors share what remains, which is often little.

What does a judicial reorganisation change for me?

While the moratorium runs you cannot attach or enforce for debts from before the opening. Your claim still exists and is paid under the agreement or from the proceeds of a transfer.

How do I know when the bankruptcy is closed?

Follow the company on Checked: you are alerted the morning after the Belgian Official Gazette publishes the closure or reversal. In RegSol you follow the curator's reports.

General information on the Belgian procedures (Book XX of the Code of Economic Law), not legal advice. For your situation: the curator, your lawyer or your accountant.

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