How to find the debtor’s assets?

One of the most important aspects of the debt collection process is finding the debtor’s assets. This process is not always simple and obvious, especially when it comes to a debtor who may try to hide his assets. Therefore, it is important to have effective methods and strategies for identifying the debtor’s assets in order to enforce them. In this article, we will look at various sources and techniques that will help you achieve this goal.

It is advisable to start the process of searching for the debtor’s assets with its general analysis, first of all, establishing the year of establishment and types of the latter’s activities, as well as determining the circle of persons related to the debtor. The indicated data are open in access and help to form a step-by-step search algorithm.

This will be important for the further determination of the direction of work regarding the identification of assets (movable and immovable), at the expense of which debt repayment is carried out.

The most common source of verification of the debtor’s immovable assets is the State Register of Property Rights to immovable property. Every person who has a digital signature has access to the register. However, in such a case, information regarding the debtor’s existing ownership rights to real estate will be displayed only on the date of formation of the information certificate. Therefore, in the event that the debtor has withdrawn such property from the date of the debt to the date of formation of the request in the register, it will accordingly not be reflected in the information certificate.

It should be noted that the register additionally allows searching by such criteria as: by registration number or property address. Thanks to this option, it is possible to obtain information about the movement of property from the debtor to another owner at any time, but in order to carry out such a search, you need to know the specified criteria. Therefore, at the beginning and in the process of cooperation with the debtor, it is advisable to periodically monitor him according to the register of property rights in preventive measures. Since, the presence of such information, in the case of alienation of property by the debtor after a delay in the fulfillment of obligations, may be the basis for initiating a lawsuit to recognize the agreement on alienation as fraudulent and, accordingly, to return such property to the debtor. At the same time, the alienation takes place, as a rule, in favor of one or more persons related to the debtor, who in turn already carry out further alienation to third parties. You can familiarize yourself with the essence and procedure of challenging fraudulent agreements for the purpose of debt recovery by following this link.

If it is assumed that the creditor does not have information about the immovable property owned by the debtor during the period from the date of the debt to the date of receipt of the information certificate, then in this case this information can be obtained either through a notary public or through a lawyer who has a direct access to the State register of property rights to immovable property. These persons have access to detailed information about all the property owned by the debtor during the required period.

The options for obtaining information described above refer to debtors who were created after 01.01.2013, since it was from that time that the State Register of Property Rights began to operate. Information about the property of debtors established before 2013 will not be displayed in the register, except when the debtor did not transfer such information to the new register on his own initiative or during the alienation of real estate (the rights to which arose before 2013).

Therefore, for a debtor established before 2013, all open sources should be analyzed in order to identify addresses that such a debtor used in business activities (legal address, address for correspondence, contact address on the debtor’s website, declared material and technical base of the debtor in case of participation the latter in tender procedures, etc.). After establishing such addresses, check them in the State Register of Property Rights. In the event that information about such addresses is not in the register, it is necessary to send to the bureau of technical inventories (at the location of the identified addresses) attorney requests to establish the owners of real estate at such addresses. It should be taken into account that the local BTI, which recorded ownership rights to real estate before the introduction of the new register, provides information only according to the search criterion – “by address”. Providing information by such search criteria as: by the owner’s name or by the owner’s code is impossible due to functional reasons.

Alternative sources for finding information about the debtor’s unregistered real estate are information from the State Property Fund regarding the possible transfer of property to the debtor in the manner of privatization and information from tax authorities regarding the objects of taxation notified by the debtor in the order of submission of form No. 20-OPP. Information is provided through attorney requests.

The last source for checking information on the debtor’s immovable property, which is not contained in the State Register of Property Rights, is information from the State Geocadastre. Information is provided through attorney requests. If there are rights to land plots, the State Geocadastre in its response reports the cadastral numbers of the land plots belonging to the debtor. With the help of these numbers on the web portal of the State Geocadastre electronic services, you can create paid extracts by cadastral number and get detailed information about the corresponding land plot.

The next step is to check the availability of rights to vehicles and vehicles equivalent to them in the following registers: Register of vehicles of the Ministry of Internal Affairs; Register of agricultural machinery of the State Production and Consumer Service; Register of technological transport of State Labor and Register of technical means for agricultural industry. Information is provided through attorney requests. At the same time, the answer is provided for the period that is requested, and not only on the date of the request.

We also recommend checking the information on the debtor’s movable  vehicles in the following registers: State Ship Register and Register of Civil Aircraft of Ukraine. These two registries are open and free. Although the registers are in the form of an Excel table, which are periodically updated, it is possible to search by the name of the debtor.

Further, depending on the identified types of economic activity of the debtor, it is expedient to check the presence of the debtor’s assets in the following registers: Register of fisheries water objects of the State Agency of Land Reclamation and Fisheries of Ukraine; The Register of Minerals of the State Nadra; Register of excise warehouses of DPS and register of unique objects of space activity of the State Space Agency. Information is provided through attorney requests, except for the register of fishery water bodies, which is open in the form of an Excel table.

It is also worth checking the debtor in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities regarding whether the debtor has corporate rights to other companies. The request is paid, but it can be made by any person who has a digital signature. In the event that, based on the generated extract, it is established that the debtor has corporate rights, it is advisable to also check such companies according to all the sources specified in this article. Therefore, if the debtor does not have his own property to satisfy the creditor’s demands, then as part of the enforcement proceedings, the debtor’s share in another company should be levied.

If all the listed sources did not give the desired result, then attention should be focused on the study of the financial component of the debtor. The easiest source for this is the register of court decisions, with the help of which it is possible to identify court cases in which the debtor collects debts from his counterparties. In the case of finding relevant court decisions, the creditor has the procedural right to collect on the receivables of the debtor’s counterparties. 

Among other sources, it is necessary to single out information from tax authorities regarding the provision of a register of tax invoices for a certain period and information from statistical authorities regarding the provision of a balance sheet (financial report). Obtaining the specified information is carried out through solicitor requests or requests from a public or private executive. In addition, the executor has the right to receive from the debtor’s servicing banks information on the movement of the latter’s funds for a certain period. In the case of receiving complete information and comparing it with each other, it is possible to discover the presence of the debtor’s fixed assets, stocks and receivables, as well as other property that was transferred by the debtor to third parties in order to avoid returning the debt to the creditor.

Summarizing the above, identifying the debtor’s assets is a complex process, but with the right methods and approach, excellent results can be achieved. In general, using a combination of asset searches through all of these sources can increase the possibility of debt enforcement.