Prague, Feb 23 (CTK) – A group of 25 Czech senators has filed a constitutional complaint against a part of the law on distraint under which creditors can choose any distraint officer to enforce their financial claim from a debtor, one of them, Senator Miroslav Nenutil (Social Democrats, CSSD), said on Friday.
The competition among distraint officers is at variance with the constitutional order, Nenutil told CTK.
“The officers’ competition over whose office will deal with the highest number of distraints should end. The distraint officers should focus on heading their offices rather than trading on the imaginary market with distraints,” he said.
Nenutil said he hopes the Constitutional Court will meet their complaint and abolish the respective part of the law on distraints.
The senators would like distraint officers to deal with distraints from their area.
Martin Tunkl, from the leadership of the Czech Chamber of Distraint Officers, welcomed the complaint filed by the senators.
“We believe that the assigning according to location would help stabilise the environment,” Tunkl said.
He said the Chamber has been promoting this change for some time and it is glad that it is finally promoted by others as well. The previous government declared support for the change, but did not work hard towards its implementation, he added.
“If the proposal is pushed through, we will be happy to take part in the legislative process so that the amendment to the law on distraint can be passed smoothly,” Tunkl said.
Nenutil said the costs of the enforcing of the financial claims could be reduced if local distraint offices dealt with the distraints.
He also said if a debtor had more unpaid debts, one and the same distraint officer should be enforcing all the claims.
The Senate proposed that distraints be assigned to the distraint office in the given area in the previous election term, but the other house of parliament, the Chamber of Deputies, did not take a vote on it by the term’s end last autumn, and the proposal thus failed.
