{"id":12363,"date":"2010-11-06T16:34:04","date_gmt":"2010-11-06T16:34:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/?p=12363"},"modified":"2019-11-07T12:28:39","modified_gmt":"2019-11-07T12:28:39","slug":"eu-personal-insolvency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/eu-personal-insolvency\/","title":{"rendered":"EU Personal Insolvency"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The majority of residents of member states of the European Union (EU) are not aware of some unexpected features that European Union membership provides in connection with personal insolvency. These particular perks are grounded in the principle of the unbridled migration of labour which EU people enjoy throughout the European Union and are undoubtedly relevant for those who find themselves loaded down by individual liabilities and can be threatened with intensive bankruptcy proceedings in some member states of the European Union. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

There are certainly substantial variations in bankruptcy regulations amongst various member countries of the EU. Britain is often held up as being a glowing example of enlightenment insofar as it has advanced a considerable body of personal bankruptcy legislation. This provides any financially troubled citizen with a wide variety of approaches to their difficulty. The wide selection of solutions and choices available are neither draconian nor punitive. What they provide is recognition of every citizen\u2019s right to a second chance – a brand new start in fact. The underlying approach could be described as pro-entrepreneurial comparable to the entrepreneurial business environment in the United States. When compared to some other member countries of the EU, British system is extremely attractive. In the United Kingdom insolvent borrowers are able to get the opportunity to rehabilitate themselves, whilst in certain other European Union member states the current legislative and national culture is likely to attempt to punish the insolvent debtor. So how can the insolvency system in the UK furnish unexpected benefits for European Union citizens who are not UK citizens?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"EU<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

European Union laws \nallow bankruptcy regulations of one EU member country to apply in \nanother, subject to a number of provisos. One of the features of \ncross-border insolvency is that borrowers may try to start up insolvency\n proceedings in a nation of the EU, instead of the state in which they \ndwell and work. Moreover, they may pick out any member state in which to\n exercise this privilege and it is only to be expected that they would \nchoose a nation that has enacted insolvency regulations more beneficial \nto their individual needs than that which prevails in their own \u2018home\u2019 \njurisdiction. This exercise of these rights is sometimes labelled as \n\u201cforum shopping\u201d. As a result of this right, an insolvent person in debt\n who lives in any member state might be able to put forward an \nIndividual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA) or petition for bankruptcy or \nindeed go after some other legal resolution for their debt troubles in \nthe United Kingdom – provided that the UK is their \u201ccentre of main \ninterests\u201d. The concept of the term \u201ccentre of main interests\u201d or COMI \nis without a doubt key to the matter. The relevant EU Regulation states \nthat \u201cthe centre of main interests should correspond to the place where \nthe debtor performs the management of his interests on a regular basis \nand is therefore ascertainable by third parties\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most \ncommon explanation of this statement is that the COMI would be the \ncountry where the person in debt mainly carries out their business, \nprofession or self-employment. Where the person in debt doesn’t trade or\n carry on with an occupation, the COMI is commonly looked upon as the \nstate in which he or she resides. If the person lives in one country and\n trades in another, the COMI is the state in which the person trades. \nWhere the person\u2019s only connection with a state is that they work there \non a non self-employed basis (possibly commuting from a nearby country),\n then the COMI will generally be in the state in which they live and \nconsequently pay bills, manage a bank account, buy merchandise and so \nforth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In case of bankruptcy proceedings, the COMI is set at the\n date the petition is presented and not where, in the past, the relevant\n activity was conducted. Therefore the address of lenders and the state \nwherein liabilities were incurred are not relevant matters in \nascertaining a COMI. Curiously, although not relevant to individual \ninsolvency is that in the case of a company, the COMI is the registered \noffice, in the absence of substantiation to the contrary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What \nabout an IVA? To look at an example: a serving person in the Armed \nForces who’s serving in another country and who can be stationed \noffshore for prolonged durations may enter into an IVA in the UK. The \nsame might apply to anyone who is for example working in an EU member \ncountry but whose assets happen to be in the UK. Likewise, anybody who \nworks in the merchant navy can enter into an Individual Voluntary \nArrangement, even though they may perhaps be in another country for much\n of their working lives, so long as their \u201ccentre of main interests\u201d is \nin the UK. Clearly there are many different situations that might affect\n the debtor\u2019s capacity to comply with the terms and conditions of an \nIVA. These might possibly feature assets owned or obtained in another \ncountry or the likelihood of taking on debts abroad during or just prior\n to the term of the proposed IVA. Even so, lenders will generally \nconsent to this type of IVA as long as they are satisfied with the \ndebtor\u2019s capacity to abide by the terms and conditions. It should be \nkept in mind that an IVA in the UK is restricted to England, Wales and \nNorthern Ireland. For Scotland the broadly equivalent insolvency option \nis a Trust Deed.\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The majority of residents of member states of the European Union (EU) are not aware of some unexpected features that European Union membership provides in connection with personal insolvency. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-debt-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12363"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12363\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12381,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12363\/revisions\/12381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}