EGYPT Law and Practice Contributed by: Amr A. Abbas, Ahmed Abdel Hakeem, Khaled Abou El Wafa and Adham Ahmed Saied, Matouk Bassiouny & Hennawy
pose of any of the assets subject to precautionary attachment. A precautionary attachment does not require a court decision; rather, it can be carried out by a court bailiff upon fulfilling certain legal require - ments. Broadly, it is an interim measure to determine the assets of the defendant and to restrict the defend - ant from taking any action in relation to the assets that would be to the detriment of the enforcing party. The general requirements for precautionary attach - ment are that:
of first instance of the district in which the debtor is domiciled or upon a petition of the debtor themselves or one of their creditors. The lawsuit will be adjudi - cated in an expedited manner. On the other hand, bankruptcy is primarily sought when a merchant ceases to pay its commercial debts due to disturbance/disruption/turmoil in its financial affairs, subject to the satisfaction of specific legal requirements. It thus aims at liquidating the assets of the merchant, enabling creditors to satisfy their claims from the proceeds of the sale. 2.3 Costs and Time Taken to Enforce Domestic Judgments Generally, there is no specific timeframe in which to enforce a domestic judgment. The costs and time - frame vary depending on the selected enforcement method – ie, precautionary or compulsory enforce - ment – and whether the enforcement proceedings are against movables or immovables. The law regulates the necessary requirements and procedures for each enforcement method. By way of example, assum - ing that enforcement will be made against movables owned by the debtor, the process may take approxi - mately 18–24 months. For a precautionary attach - ment, it may take six to eight months. It is generally advisable to commence enforcement procedures against the defendant’s bank account, as this is a more efficient and prompt enforcement procedure. Generally, there is no central official record where the successful party can identify the assets owned by the defendant. However, certain public registries may be helpful in identifying some of the defendant’s assets. These registers include the Real Estate Register’s Office for the identification of immovables ownership and the Commercial Register for the identification of commercial companies. Additionally, there are some procedures that can be followed by the successful party to identify the defendant’s assets. For instance, to initiate an attach - ment on the defendant’s bank account, the applicant 2.4 Post-Judgment Procedures for Determining Defendants’ Assets
• the right is certain; • the right is due; and • the right is quantified.
If the creditor does not have an enforcement instru - ment or an enforceable judgment, or its debt is not quantified, the precautionary attachment will only be levied by an order from the enforcing judge as long as the debt is certain and due. In this case, the debt will be quantified temporarily. Finally, only movables can be subject to precautionary attachments. Executive Attachment Subject to the satisfaction of certain legal require - ments and procedures, the executive attachment is the step preceding the compulsory sale of the defend - ant’s assets by public auction under the supervision of the competent enforcement judge. Executive attach - ment procedures differ depending on the nature of the asset subject to the attachment (ie, a movable or an immovable asset). Insolvency and bankruptcy proceedings Furthermore, for insolvency proceedings, Egyptian law differentiates between insolvency (which is regu - lated under Egyptian civil law) and bankruptcy (which is regulated under a recently promulgated law – name - ly, Law No 11 of 2018). Unlike bankruptcy proceed - ings, insolvency proceedings apply to non-traders with regard to non-commercial disputes. Under civil law, a debtor may be declared insolvent if their assets are insufficient to satisfy their debts. Insol - vency is declared either by the judgment of the court
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