Antohi Laurențiu Law Office
Lapse and Prescription of Forced Enforcement — When an Old Enforcement Can Be Stopped.
Do you have an enforcement file that has been open for a long time, or a new one, on an old debt, reopened after a pause? The law sets strict limits on how long an enforcement can run without real action — and when those limits are exceeded, you can defend yourself with a challenge to enforcement.
Three situations I always check in an enforcement file.
Lapse of forced enforcement (6 months)
If, through the creditor’s fault, 6 months pass without any act or step necessary for forced enforcement, the enforcement lapses by operation of law (Art. 696 Code of Civil Procedure). Lapse voids all enforcement acts carried out, subject to the exceptions provided by law, and can be established by the enforcement officer or by the court, upon request.
Prescription of the right to obtain forced enforcement (3 years)
The prescription period for the right to obtain forced enforcement is 3 years. The first period runs, as a rule, from the date the judgment became final (Art. 705 Code of Civil Procedure). This is not, however, a single period covering the entire enforcement: every real enforcement act (garnishment, seizure, sale of assets, etc.) or acknowledgment of the debt by the debtor interrupts the running period, and from that moment a new 3-year period begins (Art. 709 para. 2 Code of Civil Procedure). In practice, as long as no more than 3 years pass between any two successive enforcement acts — or between the date the judgment became final and the first enforcement act — enforcement can lawfully continue for much longer, even 5, 7 or 10 years from the judgment. The problem only arises when, at some point, more than 3 years pass between two such reference points. Once the period expires, the enforceable title loses its enforceable force — but only if the debtor expressly invokes prescription, since it does not apply automatically (Art. 706).
The file reopened after a pause
The most common situation we encounter: a first enforcement file, closed through a termination order, followed by a new file, on the same claim. The pause between the two files may look short — 3 months, 6 months — but what matters is not that interval alone, but the total time elapsed from the last real enforcement act in the first file to the first enforcement act in the new file, including the time remaining in the first file after that last act and until the termination order. Many courts hold that the termination order is not, by itself, an enforcement act — because it does not represent any step toward realizing the debtor’s assets or actually recovering the claim, but merely closes the file administratively (Art. 709 para. 1 pt. 4 Code of Civil Procedure). If that is so, that interval does not interrupt prescription, and if the cumulative total — from the first file, plus the pause, plus the start of the second — exceeds 3 years, the creditor’s right to obtain forced enforcement has become prescribed, even if the pause between files, taken alone, looks small. This can be raised through a challenge to enforcement against the second file.
Not just an isolated interpretation.
The issue reached the attention of judges at the meeting of the presidents of the civil sections of the High Court of Cassation and Justice and of the courts of appeal, held on 23-24 September 2024 and organized by the National Institute of Magistracy — the view expressed there was that the enforcement officer’s termination order (or minutes) does not constitute an enforcement act capable of interrupting the course of prescription.
Checking the dates in the file — the date of the last real enforcement act, the date of the termination order, the date the new file was opened — can show whether the prescription period has been exceeded, even when the creditor claims otherwise.
Send me the documents before we talk.
Fill in the form, choosing “Enforcement Challenge” as the type of issue. Upload the order opening the enforcement file, the notices, the termination order from the previous file (if any), and any other relevant document.