Debt Recovery Companies 2026 — Effective Strategies

For an entrepreneur delivering services or products on credit, the question „how do I recover my money?" passes through monthly concerns sooner or later. National Bank of Romania data shows that, at the level of 2025, Romanian companies registered outstanding receivables of over 50 billion lei — money frozen, harming cash flow and slowing healthy businesses.

The good news: legal instruments for debt recovery have improved significantly in recent years, and most companies never use half of them. The bad news: choosing the wrong instrument can turn a simple claim into a two-year process.

This guide presents the five main strategies, in order of cost and speed, with concrete indications about when to use each. It is a practical decision tree, not an academic exposition.

Before You Have a Problem: 4 Simple Rules That Prevent 80% of Recoveries

The best law firms will tell you an uncomfortable truth: most debt recoveries should not exist. They were created by poorly drafted papers, misplaced trust, or unclear terms.

Before discussing recovery strategies, the short list of prevention rules:

Verify solvency before delivering — free interrogation at the Trade Registry (ONRC), Recom Online, ANAF (tax agency) debts on the ANAF portal, ongoing enforcements at the Bailiffs' Chamber.
Written contracts for any service over 5,000 lei — even just one page, with clear payment terms, default interest, Bihor jurisdiction.
Invoices with clear mentions — payment term, IBAN, detailed service description. Vague invoices are easily contested.
Guarantees for major contracts — promissory notes, bank guarantee letters, mobile mortgage on stocks or equipment. Costs are low, efficiency dramatically higher.

If, despite prevention, you reach recovery, here are the five instruments.

Strategy 1: Formal Notification with Term — 7 Days, Minimal Costs, Surprisingly Effective

When to use it: at the first payment delay exceeding 30 days, before the relationship deteriorates.

How it works: a formal letter — on paper, sent by courier with confirmation of receipt, or email with read receipt — that:

Concretely identifies the claim (invoice, contract, amount)
Sets a clear payment term (usually 7-15 days)
Warns about subsequent measures (notarial summons, payment order, enforcement)
Calculates default interest

Real efficiency: in BVIR firm experience, 40-50% of claims against honest companies are resolved at this step. Many debtors simply postpone payments to creditors who do not insist; receiving a formal letter changes priority.

Cost: symbolic — drafting and shipping cost. You can do it yourself or with the lawyer's help (recommended, because the form of the letter matters at the next step).

Limit: does not work on debtors with structural problems (imminent bankruptcy, deliberate fraud).

Strategy 2: Notarial Payment Summons — 10-30 Days for an Enforcement Title

When to use it: for claims that are certain, liquid and exigible, with clear documents (accepted invoices, contracts, written acknowledgments), when the debtor does not respond to the notification.

How it works: under Law 188/2000, you submit to a notary:

Summons request
Justifying documents of the claim
Proof of prior notification

The notary communicates the summons to the debtor, who has 10 days to pay or motivate opposition. If they do not oppose, the summons becomes an enforcement title after 10 days — meaning you can go directly to a bailiff.

Real efficiency: ~30% recovery for claims that did not resolve at step 1. The rest (creditors who oppose) move to step 4 (ordinary action).

Cost: notarial fees + lawyer fee for drafting. Much smaller than the trial.

Advantages over court: short time (10-30 days vs. minimum 6 months), reduced formalism, does not require court appearance.

Limit: the notary rejects the request for complex claims, substantially contested or requiring evidence (expert reports, witnesses). For these cases — step 3 or 4.

Strategy 3: Payment Order — 30-60 Days, Ideal for Net Claims with Medium Value

When to use it: for certain, liquid and exigible claims with significant value (over 10,000 lei), when the debtor contested the notarial summons or when you want a stronger enforcement title directly.

How it works: under art. 1014-1025 Code of Civil Procedure, you submit to the Oradea District Court or Bihor Tribunal (depending on value) a payment order request. The procedure is simplified:

Request + justifying documents + proof of prior notification
The court analyzes formally and issues the order in the debtor's absence (summons only if the court considers it necessary)
The debtor has 10 days to file an annulment request
If they do not, the order becomes an enforcement title

Real efficiency: ~60% for claims that reach here (already filtered through previous steps). Annulment requests are admitted relatively rarely if documentation is solid.

Cost: reduced stamp duty (well below ordinary procedure), lawyer fee — total significantly smaller than ordinary trial.

Advantages: fast (30-60 days at first instance), does not require presence at hearings in most cases, solid enforcement title for subsequent enforcement.

For detailed context: we have written a complete guide on the payment order, including practical examples.

Strategy 4: Ordinary Action at the Bihor Tribunal — for Complex Cases

When to use it: when the claim is substantially contested, when there is a dispute on quantity / quality, when evidence (expert reports, witnesses) is necessary, or when the value is so large that it justifies a complete trial.

How it works: request to Oradea District Court (under 200,000 lei) or Bihor Tribunal (over 200,000 lei) with:

Complete documentary evidence
Request for necessary expertise (accounting, technical)
List of witnesses
Request for penalties and interest

Duration: 8-18 months at first instance. Appeal to Oradea Court of Appeal: 6-12 months. Total: 14-30 months until final judgment.

Cost: most expensive option — proportional stamp duty (1% up to 50,000 lei, then decreasing), lawyer fee (usually structured as fixed + percentage on success), judicial expert reports.

Advantages: definitive enforcement title, possibility of recovering costs + moral damages + costs of the trial.

Limit: slow, so not suitable for immediate cash flow.

Strategy 5: Debtor's Insolvency Procedure — When There's Nothing Left to Recover Individually

When to use it: when the debtor has multiple garnishments, blocked accounts, categorically refuses payments and seems imminently insolvent; or when you accumulate multiple creditors and none can enforce successfully.

How it works: dossier at the Bihor Tribunal — 2nd Civil Division (specialized in insolvency), through which you request opening the procedure. Under Law 85/2014:

Minimum debt for creditor: 50,000 lei (excluding alimony, consumer credits, salaries)
Procedure opens in 30-60 days
All individual enforcements are automatically suspended
A judicial administrator is appointed (UNPIR member — the Romanian National Union of Insolvency Practitioners)
Creditors register claims within 60 days

Real efficiency: depends DRAMATICALLY on priority order. Unsecured (chirographic) creditors frequently recover only 5-30% of value. Creditors with real guarantees (mortgages, pledges) recover 50-100%.

Cost: advance for the judicial administrator's fee, procedural fees.

Strategic advantages:

Concentrates all creditors in a single procedure
Allows annulment of fraudulent acts of the debtor from the last 6 months / 2 years (asset transfers to relatives, undervalued sales)
May lead to judicial reorganization — the debtor pays a negotiated plan, avoiding total liquidation

For detailed context: see our practice area in Insolvency — lawyer Horațiu Adrian Rus has been a UNPIR member since 2020.

Decision Tree: Which Strategy to Choose

Simplified scheme, in order of evaluation:

Question 1: Is the claim certain, liquid and exigible, with clear documents?

NO → Ordinary action (strategy 4) or renegotiation
YES → continue

Question 2: Does the debtor respond to communications or seem in temporary difficulty?

YES → Formal notification (strategy 1) with short term; possibly mediation
NO → continue

Question 3: Are there indications of insolvency (garnishments, blocked accounts, other creditors not recovering)?

YES → Direct insolvency (strategy 5) — only one with real chances
NO → continue

Question 4: Is the claim value below 30,000 lei?

YES → Notarial summons (strategy 2) → if debtor opposes → payment order (strategy 3)
NO → continue

Question 5: Do documents allow payment order (claim not substantially contested)?

YES → Payment order (strategy 3) → enforcement after final ruling
NO → Ordinary action (strategy 4)

Real Costs in Debt Recovery

Many companies postpone recovery „because it's expensive". The reality: costs are recovered from the debtor in most procedures — stamp duty, lawyer fee, expertise, bailiff fees. These amounts cumulate with the principal in the enforcement title.

Plus: stamp duty for claims is reduced compared to ordinary procedures (Law 80/2013, art. 6).

The only scenario where costs remain borne by the creditor: when the debtor has absolutely no recovery source (totally insolvent, no assets, no income). For these cases, prevention (the strategies at the beginning of the article) is the only effective solution.

Costly Mistakes by Companies in Recovery

From our experience with B2B clients in Bihor:

1. Prolonged „Friendly" Waiting

Good companies harm their cash flow waiting for the debtor „to pay when they can". The prescription period for commercial claims is 3 years — but the real value of money decreases dramatically through inflation, lost interest, and frequently the debtor becomes insolvent.

2. Lack of Documentation at Delivery

Unsigned delivery records, undated contracts, invoices without confirmation of receipt. All these gaps turn into additional evidence costs.

3. Accepting Disadvantageous Compensations

Debtors who propose „covering the claim through services" — often services the creditor cannot use. Accept compensations only with concrete evaluation of the value received.

4. Failing to Register Guarantees

Improperly signed promissory notes, mobile mortgages not registered at the Electronic Archive of Real Movable Guarantees (AEGRM). Guarantees evaporate without publicity formalities.

5. Lack of Strategy Coordinated with Potential Insolvency

Aggressive individual recovery, followed by insolvency, can lead to annulment of recent payments as fraud against the credit pool. The strategy must be legally coordinated.

Typical Cases — How We Resolved at BVIR

In recent years, the firm has managed varied recoveries. Some types of cases (anonymized):

Constructor with 12 unpaid invoices (total 380,000 RON) from a real estate developer in Bihor → payment order in 45 days, enforcement garnishment on accounts → 100% recovery in 3 months
Manufacturer with a single major client who entered insolvency (claim 1.2M RON) → registration of claim with mobile real guarantee on stocks → 75% recovery in 14 months (vs. probably 8% as chirographic)
IT supplier with broken contract (450,000 RON) — debtor contested service quality → ordinary action with IT expertise → won in 18 months, full recovery + costs of the trial

For Your Concrete Case

Debt recovery is one of our constant activities. Each debtor and each claim has particularities — the optimal strategy differs substantially between a claim against an honest company with temporary problems and one against a debtor with a fraud history.

For a company in Oradea or Bihor with accumulated claims, we usually start with a portfolio assessment — which claims are recoverable, which require payment order, which already impose insolvency. This assessment offers a roadmap with terms and concrete actions.

Schedule an initial consultation to discuss concretely the strategy appropriate for your claims.

Discover our practice area in Enforcement → | Insolvency → | Corporate Law →

Legal Sources Cited

Law no. 134/2010 — Code of Civil Procedure, art. 1014-1025 (payment order)
Law no. 188/2000 on judicial bailiffs and notaries (notarial summons)
Law no. 85/2014 on prevention procedures and insolvency
Law no. 297/2018 on the National Register of Mobile Publicity
GO no. 13/2011 on legal interest

Debt Recovery from Companies in 2026: 5 Effective Strategies, Ordered by Cost and Speed