From June 20, 2022 (with the exception of certain provisions), Federal Law No. 417-ФЗ dated December 21, 2021 (hereinafter referred to as the Law), which amends the legislation on enforcement proceedings, will come into force.

In particular, the Law provides for the following changes in the work of the Federal Bailiff Service (hereinafter referred to as the FBS).

  1. Information interaction with the FBS in electronic form

The parties to enforcement proceedings and the FBS will be able to exchange information through the State Services portal and the unified system of interdepartmental electronic interaction (hereinafter referred to as SIEI). Such methods of information interaction will be used by the FBS to send orders and other documents to the parties to enforcement proceedings, informing them about the course of enforcement, enforcement actions taken, enforcement measures taken. The parties to enforcement proceedings will be able to submit applications, petitions, explanations, recusals and complaints to FBS officials through the State Services portal or SIEI, as well as receive the results of their consideration.

The type of electronic signature and the requirements for the formats of applications, petitions, explanations, recusals and complaints in the form of an electronic document, as well as the results of their consideration in the form of an electronic document, will be determined by the FBS.

  1. Execution of powers of representatives in electronic form

The powers of representatives of organizations and citizens in order to participate in enforcement proceedings may be executed electronically using a unified identification and authentication system (hereinafter referred to as UIAS). The documents formalizing the powers shall be signed with an enhanced qualified electronic signature.

  1. Adoption of FBS decisions in automatic mode

The Federal Bailiff Service (hereinafter referred to as the FBS) will be able to make decisions automatically (without the participation of its officials) on:

  • initiation of enforcement proceedings or refusal to do so;
  • completion, suspension or termination of enforcement proceedings (with the exception of certain cases);
  • collection of enforcement fee;
  • establishment and cancellation of restrictions established for the debtor;
  • imposition and removal of arrests;
  • granting a deferment or installment plan for the execution of the requirements of an executive document on the basis of a judicial act, an act of another body or official;
  • circulation and cancellation of recovery on the debtor’s funds;
  • consideration of applications, petitions of persons participating in enforcement proceedings submitted through the State Services portal.

At the same time, the FBS will take into account the presence in the State Information System on State and Municipal Payments (hereinafter referred to as the SIS SMP) of information on non-payment of fines for violating the legislation of the Russian Federation on time. In the event that the FBS receives this information from the SIS SMP, the FBS shall issue a decision to initiate enforcement proceedings within three days.

Upon receipt of information from the SIS SMP about the payment by the debtor of the debt under the executive document, the FBS will automatically check the sufficiency of the specified payment and, upon confirmation of its sufficiency, will make a decision to remove the temporary restriction on the debtor’s departure from the Russian Federation, if such a restriction was previously established for the debtor.

Decisions will be automatically made in the form of FBS resolutions signed with an enhanced qualified electronic signature of the FBS and containing a unique accrual identifier. The resolution of the FBS will not indicate the position, surname and initials of the person who passed the resolution, since it is adopted automatically, but the position, surname and initials of the bailiff conducting the enforcement proceedings on which such a resolution was passed will be indicated.

The resolution of the FBS will be sent to the participant in the enforcement proceedings, including through the State Services portal.

Within the period specified in the resolution, the legal entity will have to inform the relevant division of the FBS about the execution of the resolution. A notice of the resolution execution shall be sent by the legal entity through the State Services or SIEI in the form of an electronic document signed with an enhanced qualified electronic signature, and in the absence of such an opportunity, on paper. The requirements for the notice format will be established by the FBS.

It will be possible to appeal against the decision of the FBS, taken automatically, to the bailiff conducting the enforcement proceedings, or to the court at the place of execution or the application of enforcement measures, or at the place of enforcement proceedings. Relevant provisions are introduced by the Law into the Commercial Procedural Code of the Russian Federation and the Code of Administrative Procedure of the Russian Federation.

  1. Identification of the parties to enforcement proceedings

The Law provides for the identification of parties during the consideration of civil cases by arbitration courts and courts of general jurisdiction.

To do this, it is proposed to use an approach in which the identification data of the claimant and the defendant are to be indicated in the statement of claim, the application for the issuance of a court order. If the claimant does not know the date and place of birth of the defendant, one of its identifiers (Individual Insurance Account Number (SNILS), Taxpayer Identification Number (INN), series and number of an identity document, Primary State Registration Number (OGRN) of an individual entrepreneur, series and number of a driver’s license), this shall be indicated in the statement of claim, application for issuance of a court order and such information, at the request of the court, shall be provided by the bodies of the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation, and (or) tax authorities, and (or) internal affairs bodies. In this case, the period for issuing a court order, as well as the period for accepting a statement of claim for proceedings, shall be calculated from the day the court receives such information.

The operative part of the court decision will have to contain one of the identifiers of the claimant and the defendant (SNILS, INN, series and number of an identity document, series and number of a driver’s license).

The identification data of the recoverer and the debtor will have to be indicated in the enforcement documents. In the absence of one of the identifiers of the debtor in the enforcement document, the enforcement document will be returned to the body that issued it for proper execution, of which the recoverer will be notified.

The proposed approach will make it possible to exclude cases of erroneous execution of enforcement actions against persons who are not debtors, as well as to obtain the identification data of the debtor without imposing any additional obligations on the recoverer to request information.

  1. Deadlines for providing information about debtors

Tax authorities, banks, bodies carrying out state registration of rights to property, other bodies and organizations will have to submit information about the debtor’s property to bailiffs within three days from the date of receipt of the request (currently this period is seven days). This provision will come into force on December 17, 2022.

In order to notify the debtor and the recoverer, the bailiffs will be able to request from telecom operators the phone numbers of the debtor and the recoverer. Telecom operators will be required to provide this information within one day from the date of receipt of the request.