Demand for payment of a debt

Have you received a letter about having to pay a debt, also known as an injunction of order to pay? If so, the individual or entity that applied for the order to pay wishes to establish that you are going to pay what the demand says.

What is an order to pay?

An order to pay is a demand from someone who claims that you have to pay a debt. They want to establish their claim, or make it official, in a verdict.

What do you have to do?

Always begin by notifying us that you have received the order to pay. This you do by signing the acknowledgement of service and returning it to us. If you don’t sign we may seek you out in person in order for you to sign.

Your signature shows that you know about the claim

Signing the acknowledgement of service does not mean that you agree with the claim. It is simply proof that you have received the letter and know about the claim.

What should you do if you are unable to send the acknowledgement of service to us?

If you are unable to send us the acknowledgement of service you can call our customer service instead and confirm over the phone that you have received the letter.

Have the letter to hand when you call so we can make sure that we’re talking about the same letter. To do that, we will ask you to read out

• the case number, or
• the amount.

If we can confirm that you are the person we are looking for, you will be regarded as having received service and you don’t have to send us the acknowledgement of service.

If you have any questions, take the opportunity of asking them now, so you know what is going to happen next.

What happens next?

You now have to decide whether you think the claim is correct or not. This you have to do within the decision period, which is the period of time you have in which to pay the debt or object to the claim (contest it). The letter will say how long the decision period is.

What do you do if the claim is correct?

If you consider the claim correct you have to pay the amount stated in the letter directly to the creditor. Remember that you also have to pay interest and other charges. It is important that you contact the creditor in order to get precise information about how much you have to pay.

Once you have paid, the creditor has to withdraw their application. You should also notify us in writing that you have paid before the payment deadline, which is the same as the end of the decision period.

What do you do if you are unable to pay before the payment deadline?

If you are unable to pay before the payment deadline, contact the creditor to see if you can reach an agreement about how you are going to pay.

If you do reach an agreement, you have to ask the creditor to withdraw their application. If they don’t withdraw it, we will proceed to issue a verdict in the matter.

What do you do if you consider the claim incorrect?

If you think the claim is incorrect you have to object to it. This is known as contesting it, and you do so by writing us a letter in which you state

• what is incorrect about the claim
• your name
• your personal identity number
• the case number specified in the payment injunction.

Send us the letter before the payment deadline, i e before the end of the decision period. This date is also specified in the injunction.

What does the Enforcement Authority then do?

We send the letter with your contestation to the creditor. We do this to inform them that you find the demand incorrect. If they don’t agree with your objections they can request that we hand the matter over to the courts. In that case a court will take over the matter.

The court will charge a fee of SEK 600 or SEK 2 500. The size of the fee depends on how big the debt is and on how the court is going to handle the case.

The court fee is paid by the creditor. However, if you lose the case in court you may have to pay the fee along with any other court costs.

If the creditor does not request to have the case handed over to the courts, we will dismiss it.

What happens if you think part of the claim is incorrect?

If you think that part of the claim is incorrect, you proceed in the same way as if you were going to contest the entire claim.

Remember to state clearly in your letter what part of the claim you contest and why.

If you pay the part of the claim that you think is correct, you have to notify us of this.

If you don’t pay the part of the claim that you think is correct, we will issue a verdict that you are the person liable to pay. This means that you are obliged to pay what is demanded of you.

What happens if you don’t do anything?

If you don’t pay we will also issue a verdict. This means that you are obliged to pay what is demanded of you.

In order to get paid, the creditor can additionally apply to have the verdict executed. In brief, this means we carry out an investigation into your finances and decide on whether to carry out attachment.

You may be able to avoid attachment by contacting the creditor as quickly as possible and coming to an agreement about payment. The creditor then has the option of withdrawing the request for attachment.

What do credit reference agencies do?

Credit reference agencies obtain information that we have issued a verdict and register that information. That means you get a record of non-payment. If you want to check whether a record of non-payment has been registered for you, contact one of the credit reference agencies.

What do you if you think the verdict is incorrect?

If you think the verdict is incorrect you can apply to have it reviewed by the courts. That is known as applying for a reopening of the verdict.

Such an application must be made in writing and be sent to us within a month of the verdict being issued.

Are there costs involved in getting the verdict reviewed?

If you apply to have a court review the verdict, the court will charge a fee.

It is the individual or entity that applied for the payment injunction that that has to pay the fee, not you. But if you should lose the case you may have to pay the fee along with any other court costs.