I agree about contacting the debt agency to help you. Good luck

You might be too late but speak to a gestor any way asap

My condolences on your loss,

For peace of mind it would be better to resolve this situation. The advice to contact debt support services is wise, maybe a repayment plan can be agreed that will ease the financial burden rather than having to settle the outstanding in its entirety in one lump sum.

Maybe it would be easier to just pay it or setup a payment plan with them, you obviously know who they are otherwise you wouldnt know they have bailiffs looking for you.

A family member who learnt of my predicament has offered to clear the debt. Thank you all for your kind advice.

Rosemary there are times when your cut-paste message are really ...............

Such a relief for you - it's so nice to hear that your family have helped out. Thanks for letting the forum know, and all the very best for the future.

Thank goodness this has been resolved for you. As I said in my PM at the time losing someone so important in your life is bad enough without the additional stress caused by the loan company.

Rosemary

What a terrible story and my heartfelt condolences go out to you!

I agree with all of the above in theory... collection of debt across the EU is supposed to be easy right!
In reality it would be virtually impossible to get you to pay this debt if you no longer have any UK assets etc
UK Bailiffs have no power what so ever in Spain or anywhere else in the EU.

I have a UK LTD company and I have found it impossible for example to get debt (€7000) on an invoice paid in France.
A debt collector can send threatening letters, but in reality it is just that... In practice they would have to try and take you to court here... good luck with that one, as the legal system is so slow (years) and expensive for any practical purposes unless several tens of thousands was owed.

Even with a court order in the UK there is so little bite with this outside of the UK, that what debt collection companies sometimes try and do next is then sell the debt (for pennies in the pound) to a company in the country that you live in (ie Spain) to try and collect - this has no authority at all and is best ignored!
These companies in the UK say that they can chase debt all over the EU... but in reality they give up after no response to their letters. I know from experience!

I've no intention of trying to teach you your business but in this case the debtor admits to owing the debt and therefore I would have thought that use could be made of a European Payment Order - a simplified procedure for cross-border monetary claims which are uncontested by the defendant, based on standard forms and enforced by the aoppropriate authorities in the country concerned.

Well in my case the client didn't dispute the debt at all. They just didn't bother paying the invoice or answering the debt collector.

"European Payment Order" sounds lovely doesn't it.... but in practice nothing happens.

Then for Spain - click on the flag and read the procedure for enforcing

https://e-justice.europa.eu/content_...en.do?member=1

quote - "Spanish legislation assigns the enforcement of judgments to Judges and Courts"

Here is your first problem! A judge needs to look over the enforcement paper work before the court decides how to proceed. Good luck with that one, you could be waiting at least 2 years before it´s even looked at here!

Good to see that the OP has cleared the debt, is there not a time limit after which it can not be enforced? Also some disinformation (saying you are going to a different country to the one you are actually going to) might have helped.

Statute of Limitation on debt is 6 years, provided no action has been taken to trace the debtor or enforce settlement in this time.

"European Payment Order" sounds lovely doesn't it.... but in practice nothing happens.

Are you saying that as fact or is it an assumption because I know of two cases where the system worked well? The case was heard in chambers and was dealt with quite quickly by the courts.

It sounds like you really didn't bother to pursue it???

I paid a lot of money to pursue this in France.
Think you will find the court system in Spain is very slow