site.btaBulgarian Private Bailiffs Propose Handling Small Debts Out of Court First

Debtors with small unpaid bills should first be referred to bailiffs and only taken to court if they fail to pay, the Bulgarian Chamber of Private Enforcement Agents proposed during an international meeting on enforcement practices in Bulgaria and Serbia, held Saturday in Belgrade. 

The Chamber clarified that the proposal concerns bills for electricity, water, heating, telephones, and other small obligations.

“This is a problem affecting hundreds of thousands of citizens. In practice, a debt of BGN 50 can grow with court fees, attorney’s fees for the creditor, and later more fees once the bailiff gets involved. That initial BGN 50 may easily turn into BGN 500–700 or even 1,000,” said Georgi Dichev, Chair of the Bulgarian Chamber of Private Enforcement Agents, speaking to BTA during the meeting.

Currently in Bulgaria, service providers send debtors directly to court, and people often find out only after their wages or bank accounts have been frozen, Dichev explained.

According to him, this happens partly because many Bulgarians do not live at their permanent address, but are still considered “notified” if two attempts to deliver a summons fail and it is posted at the address.

“Often the citizen is not dishonest, they may not even know they owe BGN 30 or they may have simply forgotten. They would pay if given the chance, instead of being dragged through the entire repressive court machinery,” Dichev said.

Bulgaria is the only country in Europe where enforcement relies exclusively on coercive judicial measures, he added. In contrast, most European states apply voluntary collection through bailiffs before court intervention, in line with Article 34 of the European Commission’s 2009 guidelines on the efficiency of justice.

Dichev stressed that private bailiffs are unfairly blamed by many Bulgarians for ballooning debts, when in fact the system itself pushes even minor obligations into costly court proceedings.

Bulgarian and Serbian bailiffs exchanged examples of enforcement practices in their countries.

The Chamber also noted that the current approach affects younger Bulgarians. In response, it has launched a national campaign, “Personal Finance and Credit Management – Basic Rules and Informed Decisions,” aimed at teaching financial literacy to 17-19-year-olds.

In the 2024/2025 school year, more than 7,500 students from 103 schools across 21 regions of Bulgaria took part in free training sessions delivered voluntarily by 27 private bailiffs.