Innsbruck, 2018-02-15

In Austria, the electronic inspection into the business proceedings of the execution of foreclosure for reasons of data protection was abolished in 2009. As of 1^st January 2019, it will be reintroduced in an amended form. The legal basis to this can be found in the Insolvency Law Amendment Act 2017 (IRÄG 2017).

The electronic inspection into the execution register allows creditors to quickly obtain an overview of the financial situation of the debtor, especially for natural persons whose credit reports are often not very informative. This would facilitate the decision for creditors whether further debt collection measures are useful or if those would only cause unnecessary additional costs. For an electronic inspection it is required that the creditor can attest to a financial claim and reasonable doubts as to the debtor’s creditworthiness. If these conditions are fulfilled, the creditor inspects certain data of the foreclosure proceedings. These include in particular the Enforcement Court, the number of files, and the amount of claims pursued in proceedings pending more than one month since approval and are neither stopped nor terminated, at foreclosure proceedings on movable tangible assets, the seizures and unsuccessful execution efforts as well as the fact that a list of assets was submitted within one year before request.

Apart from lawyers and notaries as representatives of creditors, also regional authorities and social insurance agencies as creditors are entitled to authorised access.

Search terms must be the name of the company as well as the postal code of the debtor’s address. Instead of the postal code or additionally, the date of birth and the company register number, the central trade register number or the association register number. For documentation purposes, it is necessary to indicate the creditor’s name and his address, as well as the execution title or the facts the claim is based on and the amount of the claim against the debtor, as well as  doubts as to the creditworthiness. It should be added if a legal dispute or execution proceedings must be initiated. By using the search result, for specifying the debtor it is necessary to add additional information and to refer to a double case. The search result and additional information must be used only to evaluate whether a legal dispute or execution proceedings should be implemented or continued, but not to process and transmit. They must be stored separately and protected and destroyed after loss of purpose, at the latest one year after request.

For all law firms involved in debt collection, the reintroduction of the electronic inspection of files is to be very welcomed.

Author: Dr. Peter Waizer, attorney at law