TAIWAN Law and Practice Contributed by: Yafen Lin, Peng-Kwang Chen, I-Ming Chen and Weiyu Chiang, Formosa Transnational Attorneys at Law
Formosa Transnational Attorneys at Law 7F, Shin Kong Huashan Financial Center No. 26 Hangzhou North Rd. Taipei City 100010 Taiwan
Tel: +886 2 2755 7366 Fax: +886 2 2755 6486 Email: ftlaw@taiwanlaw.com Web: www.taiwanlaw.com
1. Identifying Assets in the Jurisdiction 1.1 Options to Identify Another Party’s Asset Position In Taiwan, a judgment creditor bears sole responsibili - ty for initiating civil enforcement by commencing com - pulsory enforcement proceedings. No governmental authority is responsible for initiating such proceed - ings. Creditors have various options for identifying a debtor’s assets both before and after adjudication. Pre-Adjudication Phase Registered assets Registered assets in Taiwan include real property, pat - ents, vehicles and trademarks. Ownership of these assets can be identified as follows. Real property Title to land and buildings is recorded by the Depart - ment of Land Administration in each Taiwanese city or county (collectively, the “Land Register Authority”). Title record information includes the owner’s name, ID number and address. Although the Land Register Authority allows members of the public to obtain a transcript of registered infor - mation for a specific property (referred to as a “Type 2 transcript”), the Authority partially redacts the owner’s name, ID number, and address if the owner is a natural person. Consequently, it can be challenging to identify the full scope of the real property owned by a natural person debtor from Type 2 transcripts alone.
Furthermore, obtaining a Type 2 transcript requires the creditor to provide the Land Register Authority with a specific land or building number. This requirement effectively prevents a broad search for all real property owned by the debtor by name alone. It is therefore impractical to conduct a fishing expedition to discover all of the debtor’s real property. Nonetheless, a creditor can obtain more useful infor - mation about a debtor’s real property by petitioning for a court order as discussed in the paragraphs below concerning property disclosure orders to third parties. Patents Patent information is publicly available. A creditor may search for all registered patents owned by a debtor by using the Taiwan patent search system maintained by the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office. Trade marks Trade mark information is publicly available. A credi - tor may search for all registered trade marks owned by a debtor by using the trade mark search system maintained by the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office. Provisional attachment order A creditor with a monetary claim, or a claim convert - ible into a monetary claim, may seek a provisional attachment order against a debtor to prevent the debtor from transferring assets. Examples of monetary claims include claims for payment under a negotiable instrument, repayment of a loan or payment of rent. A claim convertible into a monetary claim is a claim that
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