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Publication date: October 7, 2026

A resident of the Kyiv region was being forced to repay more than UAH 13,000 on a loan he had already paid off. Oleksandra Shcherbyna, a lawyer at Pravova Yednist (Legal Unity), a civic organization based in Bila Tserkva, proved in court that the notary’s enforcement order for the debt could not be enforced.

Mr. Roman* turned to the lawyers of Pravova Yednist after learning that enforcement proceedings had been opened against him. He was being made to pay more than UAH 13,000 under a loan agreement signed back in 2014. Roman disputed the debt: according to him, he had repaid the loan in full in 2016, and after making that payment he never received any claim or notice from the bank saying he still owed money.

Even so, the right of claim under the loan agreement was later transferred three times to other financial companies. Roman was never told that his creditor had changed.

In 2022, a private notary issued an enforcement order (a so-called executive inscription) to collect more than UAH 13,000 from him. On that basis, enforcement proceedings were opened: the enforcement officer froze the funds in his bank accounts and took steps to recover the debt from his income.

The case arose against the backdrop of problems faced by clients of one Ukrainian bank after it ceased operations and the rights of claim under its loan agreements were sold on.

Roman learned that money was already being collected from him only in 2023, when he saw information about the enforcement proceedings in Diia, Ukraine’s state services app. Until then, he had received neither demands to repay the debt nor any notice that an enforcement order had been issued.

Oleksandra Shcherbyna, a lawyer at Pravova Yednist, took on the defense of the client’s rights, starting with an analysis of the enforcement proceedings opened against him.

“First of all, we reviewed all of the client’s materials: the loan agreement, the bank’s demand for repayment, the payment receipt, the documents on the subsequent assignment of the right of claim, and information about the enforcement proceedings,” says Oleksandra Shcherbyna. “Based on these documents, we reconstructed the history of the debt and established that the client had made a payment exceeding the amount the bank had claimed in its demand.”

The next step was to check whether the enforcement order had been issued lawfully. The lawyer examined the documents on which the private notary had based the order, as well as whether the conditions required by law for issuing it had been met. She also checked whether the statutory deadline for issuing such an order had already passed.

Drawing on the documents collected and her legal analysis, she prepared and filed a lawsuit asking the court to declare the enforcement order unenforceable. In the claim, she argued that the debt was not undisputed and that the deadline for issuing the order had been missed, and she submitted evidence to support these points.

“Having considered the case, the court upheld the claim and found the enforcement order unlawful. The client was protected from unlawfully paying a debt that did not exist,” the lawyer sums up. “The next and final stage of the case will be to submit an application to the private enforcement officer to close the enforcement proceedings, since the court has declared the enforcement order unenforceable.”

In a similar situation? Here is what to do

1. Gather all available documents: the decision to open enforcement proceedings, any demands for payment, documents confirming that the debt was already paid, and so on.
2. File a lawsuit with the court, clearly stating your claims, setting out the circumstances of the case and attaching evidence to support them.
3. If the court rules in your favor, apply to the enforcement service to close the enforcement proceedings and stop the debt collection.

Important! If the enforcement service managed to collect money from you before the court ruled that the enforcement document has no legal force, once you receive the court decision you need to apply to the enforcement service to have the money returned.

Documents required for this application:

1. An application (in free form)
2. A copy of the court decision
3. A copy of your bank account details

The court decision in this case is available in the Unified State Register of Court Decisions: https://reyestr.court.gov.ua/Review/138870774

*The name has been changed for ethical reasons.

This material was produced with the support of the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of the Legal Development Network civic union.

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