FRANCE Law and Practice Contributed by: Barbara Levy, Paul Talbourdet and Alison Vogt, De Pardieu Brocas Maffei
the attachment of the debtor’s money held in their bank account. The creditor needs to instruct a bailiff to serve notice of the order on the third party holding an account for the benefit of the debtor. It should be noted that a creditor can attach a debtor’s money only up to the value of the out - standing debt. • A judicial charge ( sûreté judiciaire ) may be ordered by the enforcement judge over the debtor’s: (a) real property – by way of judicial mortgage ( hypothèque judiciaire ) or judicial pledge over business undertakings ( fonds de commerce ); or (b) financial investments such as bonds and shares ( actions et parts sociales ) or securi - ties ( valeurs mobilières ) – by way of a judicial pledge ( nantissement judiciaire ). The debtor may challenge these protective meas - ures obtained by the creditor at any time before the judge who granted the measure, particularly when the conditions for granting it were not satisfied from the beginning. The judge may order its discharge ( main- levée ) or, upon the request of the debtor, may substi - tute any measure for the initial protective measure. In a judgment rendered on 17 May 2023, the Cour de cassation ruled that this discharge does not have a retroactive effect. The protective measure retains its effect of interrupting the limitation period. A creditor may also choose to obtain an enforceable judgment without having previously sought a protec - tive measure and simply proceed to enforcement of their judgment against the debtor’s assets. A creditor holding an enforceable judgment can instruct the bailiff to enforce payment of sums owed to the debtor by third parties to the creditor ( saisie attri- bution ). This attachment is executed by the bailiff noti - fying the third party that sums owed to the judgment debtor are to be paid directly to the judgment creditor up to the amount due, pursuant to the enforceable judgment. The third party is thereby forbidden from paying the debtor. Saisie Vente The procedure of saisie vente (not applicable to real estate property) involves several stages. First, a bail - iff is instructed to serve the debtor with an order to
pay the debt ( commandement de payer ). The bailiff then draws up an inventory of the property of the debtor, which has the effect of rendering the assets non-transferable. This process triggers a one-month period in which the debtor may, with the agreement of the creditor, organise the sale of the assets. In the absence of an agreement between the creditor and the debtor, a forced sale takes place following a public announcement, and control of the assets passes to a ministerial officer appointed for the sale. The proceeds of the sale, whether forced or not, will be paid directly to the creditor. As of 1 January 2023, the seizing creditor who arrang - es for the removal of goods to organise their forced sale must inform – by registered letter with acknowl - edgement of receipt – the creditors holding a pub - lished security interest in the same goods. Under pen - alty of nullity, this letter must indicate the name and address of the ministerial officer in charge of the sale as enshrined by Decree No 2021-1888 of 29 Decem - ber 2021 in application of Ordinance No 2021-1192 of 15 September 2021 reforming the law on securities. The main goal of this rule is to prevent unfair competi - tion between multiple creditors of a same debtor. A judgment can be enforced against financial instru - ments to be attached by the bailiff on the issuing entity or its authorised agent, depending on the nature of the financial instruments and their form of management ( saisie des droits d’associés et des valeurs mobilières ). Once the attachment has been effected, all pecuniary rights attached to the financial instruments become non-transferable. The debtor can obtain the release of the attachment by paying the relevant correspond - ing sum of money to discharge the debt secured by this charge. The attachment of salaries ( saisie des rémunérations ) as a way to enforce judgments must also be men - tioned. However, in practice, this type of attachment is difficult to obtain in France owing to the natural reluc - tance of the French courts to withhold the only source of income from a debtor. It should be underlined that, from 1 July 2025, this process will change owing to Decree No 2025-125 of 12 February 2025. Instead, the procedure will now be carried out by bailiffs and no longer subject to authorisation by the enforcement
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