Histories of lifting arrests from individuals' accounts imposed by state enforcement officers in the framework of enforcement proceedings

In May-June 2023, due to the entry into force of amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On Enforcement Proceedings,” beneficiaries' appeals to lawyers regarding the seizure of individuals' accounts by state enforcement officers became more frequent, making it impossible to use bank accounts, including receiving any social benefits.

For example, in May 2023, a beneficiary Olena, a mother of three minor children, turned to the lawyer of the NGO STEP, Hanna Babenko, who had all her bank accounts seized, including those that received social benefits for her minor child.

First of all, the lawyer provided step-by-step advice on the algorithm of actions to clarify the grounds for the seizures and ways to unblock them. Applications to the state executive service were drafted with a request to determine an account for expenditure transactions within the limits of two minimum wages in accordance with the provisions of the Law of Ukraine “On Enforcement Proceedings”, which the lawyer helped to draft. Further, the lawyer communicated with the state enforcement officer to monitor the status of the application and the timeframe for its consideration. After the bailiff issued a resolution to designate such an account for the individual to carry out expenditure transactions, the lawyer monitored the bailiff's sending and receipt of the relevant resolution by the bank for its actual execution and unblocking of the account. Due to delays on the part of the bank with the actual execution of the state enforcement officer's resolution, the lawyer helped to draft a complaint to the National Bank of Ukraine, which resulted in the unblocking of the beneficiary's account within two minimum wages. As a result, the beneficiary was able to use the funds on her account within the limits of two minimum wages to make expenditures and use payments for her young child.

Similarly, in May of this year, we received an appeal from a beneficiary, Alina, who also had all her bank accounts seized by the State Enforcement Service. After consulting with the beneficiary, it was found that the person did not have any information about the existing enforcement proceedings, as well as the grounds for the seizure. The lawyer also provided step-by-step advice on the beneficiary's procedure and the possibility of unblocking the account either within two minimum wages or even completely lifting the seizure of all accounts.

First of all, it was necessary to find out the list of enforcement proceedings opened against the beneficiary and familiarize ourselves with the available materials of these proceedings. A lawyer assisted in obtaining information about the existing proceedings and drafting an application for familiarization with the materials of the enforcement proceedings.

After examining the materials of the enforcement proceedings, it was found that, firstly, the debt for which the enforcement proceedings were in progress and for which the account was seized had already been paid by the beneficiary, and secondly, it was found that the enforcement proceedings had been opened on the basis of a court decision that had already been canceled in part of the amount of the debt, and therefore the amount to be paid was different, as was the amount of the enforcement fee.

Since the materials of the enforcement proceedings did not contain these documents, the lawyer helped the beneficiary to draft the relevant applications and obtain a valid court decision on the final amount of the debt, and also helped to obtain a certificate of no debt from the creditor to attach to the materials of the enforcement proceedings. As a result, the bailiff issued a resolution to terminate the enforcement proceedings in connection with its execution and the complete release of all accounts of the person.

Based on the results of processing such categories of appeals from beneficiaries, it was found that the most common general problems arising from the seizure of bank accounts are as follows:

1.) the location of the state enforcement service is in the territory temporarily not controlled by the Government of Ukraine. In this case, in order to resolve the issue of determining the account for expenditure transactions within two minimum wages, you must first apply to the Department of Enforcement of Decisions with a request to redirect the enforcement proceedings to another department of the enforcement service. Within 30 days, the Department will resolve this issue, and after receiving a response from the Department, the debtor will be able to send an application for determining the expense account to the new department of the enforcement service and the new executor;

2.) outdated data on existing enforcement proceedings against a person in the registers of enforcement proceedings and registers of debtors, as well as the Diia application, in particular, the opening of proceedings and seizure of debts that have been repaid or, for example, the data of an enforcement officer who is no longer engaged in enforcement activities. These inaccuracies lead to the fact that a person does not have information on which of the bailiffs to contact to resolve the issue of unblocking accounts. In this case, you can call the hotline to the relevant department of the state enforcement service, tell the employee the number of the enforcement proceedings, and then find out the name of the bailiff and his or her contact phone number. Such cases also require additional time from the lawyer and the beneficiary, in particular, to find out the grounds for the open enforcement proceedings, familiarize themselves with the materials of the proceedings, obtain certificates from the debt collectors on the absence of debts and submit these documents to the enforcement services for further decision on the termination of the enforcement proceedings and the removal of the seizure of accounts;

3.) a significant number of simultaneously seized beneficiary accounts across the country, which leads to additional time for bailiffs to consider applications from debtors to redirect enforcement proceedings to another department of the enforcement service or to determine an account for spending transactions within two minimum wages. This may also lead to delays on the part of banks in the actual execution of the resolution issued by the state enforcement officer to unblock the account within the two minimum wages. In such a case, it is advisable to continuously monitor the actions taken by the bailiff to issue the order and their compliance with the deadlines for making a decision. In case of delays in the execution of the order by the banks, it is possible to call the hotline of the bank or the National Bank of Ukraine, as well as to file a written complaint against the bank's inaction (if necessary).