What should I do if my creditor refuses a payment?
More often than one thinks, individuals or companies are faced with this difficulty: the creditor refuses a payment in order to put in fact his debtor. One can perfectly imagine the case of a landlord who refuses to collect the rent from his tenant, the creditor.The court may also order the payment of alimony, etc... for the sole purpose of harming him.
Faced with this difficulty, and to prove its good faith, the procedure of real offers and consignment, which was revised in 2016 (reform of the law of obligations), is the solution.
We explain what to do if your creditor refuses a payment:
Only 2 steps are necessary:
Step one:
If your creditor refuses to accept a payment, the first thing to do is to give them formal notice to accept it.
Article 1345 of the Civil Code provides that when the creditor, on the due date and without legitimate reason, refuses to receive the payment due to him or prevents him from doing so, the debtor may give him formal notice to accept it or allow it to be executed.
What shape?
According to the text, a simple registered letter seems to be sufficient for this formal notice. However, if the creditor refuses to collect the payments from his debtor (tenant, ex-spouse, etc. to use the initial example), it is highly likely that he will not withdraw the registered letter either.
Therefore, it is strongly recommended to call in a bailiff to issue a summons to accept payment.
Step two:
In the absence of a satisfactory response within two months, you may then deposit the payment in the hands of the Caisse des Dépôts en Consignations.
The creditor should then be notified.
In practice, here again, it is recommended that you serve the deposit by bailiff's act.
From the moment this notification is made, the debtor is discharged from his obligation.
To put it simply: once you have carried out, with our help, this procedure, it is exactly as if you had paid the creditor!
Good to know: the costs of the formal notice and the consignment are borne by the creditor.
Special case:
if you are required to give property to a person but that person refuses to receive it, you can also use this procedure. The only difference is that we will ask the judge for authorisation to sell it by auction and record the price at the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations.
For any request, do not hesitate to contact our specialists on 01 41 37 65 35.
