Statistics of debt recovery: the amount of repaid debts is increasing, while the sums of new claims are decreasing

During the first half of 2021, judicial officers were able to recover EUR 74,4 million of debt owed to private individuals and state institutions. That's 61 percent. more than last year (the first half of 2020). Two out of three creditors, who applied for debt recovery, had their debts recovered in full.

The data from the Judicial Officers' Information System (JOIS) confirms, that the aforementioned fortunate results are due to the return to normal work conditions, which were particularly slowed down during the peak months of the pandemic (due to the reduced solvency of debtors). During the first six months of 2021, the number of enforcement cases, that have been finalized, has reached 118,4 thousand, which is 28 percent higher than the amount during the first six months of 2020. More importantly, in 74,9 thousand enforcement cases, the debts were repaid in full, meaning that 63 percent of the finalized enforcement cases resulted in the full satisfaction of the creditors claim.

An exclusive feature of the time is a 40 percent decrease in the average sum of new debts.

During the first half of 2021, this sum amounted to EUR 2,186, while in the first half of 2020 it was EUR 3,669. The total amount of debt, submitted for recovery during the first half of 2021, amounts to EUR 205,6 million, while at the same timeframe in 2020 it stood at EUR 252,6 million. These changes are largely due to the revival of the real estate market. It is now more financially advantageous for indebted land and building owners to sell their property on their own and pay off their debts than to wait for the enforcement process to begin. For the same reason, the number of claims submitted to judicial officers for recovery of debts from mortgaged property has almost halved when compared to results in 2020 (from 427 in 2020, to 232 in 2021). This is the lowest figure of the last decade, because during the previous six month periods of each year starting from 2011 to 2020, on average, mortgage lenders would submit 664 claims for debt recovery.

Another good trend is the relatively small number of new claims for child support (alimony). During the first half of 2021, judicial officers initiated 931 new proceedings for the recovery of child support (alimony). Although this indicator, compared to 2020, has slightly increased (by 4,5 percent). The amount of applications for enforcement (child support/alimony), submitted in 2020-2021 is, on average, 35-50 percent less than it was in 2019 and previous years.

In the first half of 2021, a total of 871,2 thousand enforcement procedures were carried out by judicial officers for debt recovery in favor of the State (as the creditor), 703,6 thousand enforcement cases were carried out in favor of natural and legal persons, and an additional 58,9 thousand cases – for child support (alimony). The total amount of overdue debts, owed to creditors who applied to judicial officers amounted to EUR 4,8 billion at the end of June.

Currently, the Lithuanian enforcement system employs 113 judicial officers and about 740 employees (judicial officers' assistants, lawyers, administrators, etc.), 96 judicial officers' offices and 11 departments of judicial officers' offices.

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