YARD Law Co. · Dispute Resolution & Enforcement · July 2026 · YARD Law Legal Team
A creditor does not always have to wait for a final judgment before protecting a claim.
Bulgarian civil procedure allows a court, where the statutory conditions are met, to order measures designed to prevent a future judgment from being worthless. It does not follow that every unpaid invoice justifies freezing a company's bank account, and the creditor who asks for one assumes a risk of its own.
Security for a claim already filed is governed by чл. 389 ГПК. Security for a claim not yet filed is governed by чл. 390 ГПК.
The second is the one that matters commercially, because it lets a creditor act before the debtor knows litigation is coming. Where security for a future claim is granted, the court fixes a period within which the substantive claim must be brought. If that period is missed, the security is lifted, and the creditor has achieved nothing except warning the debtor.
Controlling that timetable is therefore part of the strategy, not an administrative detail.
The applicant has to satisfy the court on two things: that the claim is probably well founded on the material presented, and that there is a genuine need for security - that without the measure it will be impossible or difficult for the creditor to realise its rights (чл. 391 ГПК).
The court is not deciding the commercial dispute at this stage. It is making a provisional assessment on documents, usually without hearing the debtor.
The court may, and frequently does, order the applicant to provide a guarantee as a condition of granting the measure. The amount is set by the court on the facts of the case. This is the point at which a security application stops being theoretical, because the money has to be available before the order issues.
The measures under чл. 397 ГПК include a prohibition against disposal registered over real estate, attachment of movable property and of receivables, and other appropriate measures the court may order.
For a monetary claim, attachment of bank accounts and of receivables from third parties is usually the most effective. A prohibition over real estate does not produce cash but it stops the asset being sold, and it appears on the property register, which has its own consequences for the debtor's ability to transact.
The most aggressive looking measure is not always the right one. Freezing an empty account achieves nothing and consumes the guarantee. A meaningful security strategy starts with knowing what the debtor actually owns, which means the property register, vehicle registrations, pledge registers and the debtor's own filings need to be checked before the application is drafted, not after it is refused.
For security of a future claim the application is made to the court identified by чл. 390 ГПК, and the procedure is designed to be fast. The application is considered without notice to the debtor, which is the whole point - a debtor who is told in advance that an attachment is coming has time to move money.
Once the securing order issues, the measure is put into effect through an enforcement officer. An attachment over a bank account takes effect as against the bank on receipt, which is why the interval between order and execution matters.
An attachment restricts dealings with the asset. It does not transfer the money to the creditor.
The creditor still has to establish the claim and, once it has a title, proceed to enforcement. Security preserves the position; it does not shorten the case. Our procedural roadmap of commercial debt recovery in Bulgaria sets out the stages that follow.
This is the part that is usually left out of articles on this subject, and it is the part a client needs to hear.
Where the security is lifted, or the claim is withdrawn, or the claim is dismissed, the person against whom the measure was directed may claim compensation for the damage caused (чл. 403 ГПК). The guarantee ordered by the court exists precisely to answer that exposure.
The consequence is that interim security is not a general commercial pressure tool. Applying for an attachment against a trading company on a claim that cannot properly be supported is a decision with a price attached, and it should be taken on the same analysis as the claim itself.
The debtor can also seek to have the measure lifted or replaced, and can apply for the security to be cancelled in the circumstances provided by чл. 402 ГПК.
For cross border cases there is a separate instrument that is often more useful than the domestic one.
Regulation (EU) 655/2014 creates the European Account Preservation Order. It is available before proceedings are started, during them, or after a judgment or authentic instrument exists. It is obtained without notice to the debtor, and it reaches bank accounts in other Member States. The Bulgarian procedural provisions implementing it are чл. 618а to чл. 618д ГПК.
Its scope is narrower than domestic security - it applies to bank accounts only, and it excludes certain categories of claim and certain protected accounts. But for a creditor facing a debtor with accounts in more than one Member State it does something no Bulgarian domestic measure can. We cover the cross border position in more depth in debt recovery in Bulgaria for foreign companies.
One point of Bulgarian practice worth knowing: the Court of Justice has held that a Bulgarian order for payment which has not entered into force does not amount to an authentic instrument for the purposes of the Regulation. A fresh чл. 410 ГПК order cannot be treated as a European title.
Security assumes there is still something to secure. Where the debtor has already disposed of assets - typically by transferring a business unit, a property or a shareholding to a related party at a price that bears no relation to value - the answer is not an attachment but a separate claim.
Under чл. 135 ЗЗД a creditor may seek to have a transaction prejudicial to it declared ineffective as against the creditor. The requirements are specific, the position differs depending on whether the disposal was for value and on what the transferee knew, and the limitation position needs to be checked at once. It is a different action from security and it is frequently the one that decides whether a large claim is recoverable at all.
Commercial recovery files become difficult in a predictable sequence. The debtor stops communicating, then changes ownership or management, then accumulates other creditors, then disposes of anything useful, then becomes insolvent.
A security assessment carried out at stage one costs a fraction of the litigation that follows at stage five, and it is the only stage at which the answer can still be positive.
The question a creditor should be asking is not whether it can sue. It is what will be left to enforce against if it does, and what has to be secured before the debtor knows the claim is coming.
We advise creditors on Bulgarian commercial claims, interim security, asset tracing and enforcement and litigation. Where there is a real risk to recovery we assess security at the outset rather than treating it as a step that follows the judgment.
To discuss an urgent security application, write to [email protected].
This article provides general information on Bulgarian procedure and EU instruments as at July 2026 and should not be relied upon as legal advice in a particular matter. Prepared by the legal team at YARD Law Co., a law firm based in Sofia, Bulgaria, acting for domestic and international clients in commercial disputes, enforcement and insolvency.
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