New Amendments to the Law on Enforcement and Security
Newsletter 117
The Long-awaited New Amendments to the Law on Enforcement and Security
The new Amendments to the Law on Enforcement and Security were introduced on 3 August 2019. The amended law will come into force on 1 January 2020, with certain provisions applying from 1 March 2020 and 1 September 2020 respectively.
The latest Amendments seek to address queries arising from practice, as well as introduce radically new solutions and procedures into the enforcement proceedings.
Expanded powers of public enforcement officers: new sole powers
As a significant conceptual change, public enforcement officers will have expanded powers of enforcement and new sole powers when it comes to determination of enforcement.
Most significantly, public enforcement officers now have the sole power to make determinations on creditor proposals and enforcement orders for the purpose of debt collection against the budget of the Republic of Serbia or local government (i.e. in situations where the Republic of Serbia, an autonomous province, a local government unit or any other direct or an indirect user of the Budget funds, are debtors).
Furthermore, public enforcement officers are now solely responsible for the execution of enforcement by means of liquidation of real estate and movable assets, as well as for the enforcement of action, which can be incumbent on the debtor or a third person.
Since the court practice remains divided on enforcement when it comes to legally mandated financial support, the Law now explicitly gives the court the power to enforce family law documents, except when it comes to enforcing legally mandated financial support, in which case It is the public enforcement officers who have sole responsibility.
Further, public enforcement officers now have the sole power to enforce mandated public dues (for instance, collection of court fees).
