Debt Collection Agency in Albania - No Win, No Fee

Step 1 - How does amicable (pre-legal) debt collection work in Albania?

Albanian law does not mandate a formal pre-action notice before a creditor can sue, so the amicable stage is a practical process rather than a fixed legal procedure: your partner sends a structured payment demand, follows up directly with the debtor, and negotiates a settlement or payment plan wherever possible. For B2B and B2G commercial debts, Law No. 48/2014 gives creditors an automatic right to statutory interest from the day after the due date, without needing to send a formal notice of delay first, provided the creditor has performed its own side of the contract. This built-in incentive means many Albanian businesses settle promptly once a structured demand arrives, since delay is already accruing cost.

Escalation to legal action is never automatic. If amicable contact has not produced payment or a workable agreement by around this point, your partner recommends whether to pursue an enforceable title through the courts (or, where you already hold a notarial deed or bank-loan document, straight to enforcement), and you decide whether to proceed. Because there is no mandatory statutory notice regime, moving from amicable contact to a legal route in Albania is a matter of your partner's professional judgment and your sign-off, not a fixed legal waiting period.

Step 2 - How do you obtain an enforceable title in Albania?

Which route applies depends on the size and nature of the claim. Contractual claims up to 150,000 ALL (approximately EUR 1,636 at the Bank of Albania's official rate) go through a national small-claims/summary-trial procedure: the case is decided mostly on the papers, with an oral hearing only if the court considers it necessary, and only a limited set of Civil Procedure Code articles applies (art. 162/a). If a debtor's countersuit pushes the total value above that threshold, the whole case reverts to ordinary procedure.

Claims above 150,000 ALL proceed as ordinary litigation before the First Instance Court in the debtor's judicial district. Most cases are heard by a single judge; a 3-judge panel is mandatory only for claims exceeding 50,000,000 ALL and certain specific case types (Civil Procedure Code art. 35). An unsuccessful party can appeal to the Court of Appeal (a single judge for claims up to 150,000 ALL, otherwise a 3-judge panel), with the High Court in Tirana as the final instance.

Court fees are tiered by claim value: roughly 1,000 to 20,000,000 ALL at first instance, and 2,000 to 10,000,000 ALL on appeal or before the High Court, under Albania's dedicated court-fees law (in force since 1 June 2018). Under the "loser pays" rule, the court shifts the winning side's fee, other court costs and lawyer's remuneration onto the losing side, in proportion to how much of the claim was upheld (Civil Procedure Code art. 106); on an amicable settlement, each side normally bears its own costs unless the parties agree otherwise.

Once a court decision ordering payment becomes final and irrevocable, it becomes an executive title (Civil Procedure Code art. 510) - the document that lets you move to enforcement. Notarial deeds recording a monetary obligation and bank-loan documents are themselves executive titles, so a creditor holding one of these can, in principle, skip straight to the execution-order stage without first winning a court judgment.

More on court proceedings in Albania

Because Albania keeps civil and commercial claims on the same ordinary-court track, there is no separate commercial-court fast lane to choose between; the size of the claim, not its subject matter, decides which procedure and which judge panel apply. Where the underlying document already qualifies as an executive title, your partner can advise whether court proceedings are needed at all before moving to enforcement.

Step 3 - How does debt enforcement work in Albania?

Enforcement in Albania is carried out by private judicial bailiffs (përmbarues gjyqësor privat), licensed, qualified and disciplined by the Ministry of Justice under Law No. 26/2019. A bailiff acts on an executive title (Civil Procedure Code art. 510) - typically a final court decision, a recognised arbitral award, a notarial deed recording a monetary obligation, a bank-loan document, or a bill of exchange - combined with a court-issued execution order (art. 511). Where the underlying instrument is a bank-credit or monetary obligation, the court must state the applicable Law 48/2014 interest rate directly inside that execution order.

Before any assets are seized, the bailiff must serve the debtor a voluntary-execution notice: 5 days to comply for salary or maintenance obligations, or 10 days for all other cases (Civil Procedure Code art. 517). Enforced seizure cannot start before that window closes, unless waiting would make execution impossible (art. 519). During this process, the debtor must declare their property status and any sums owed to them by third parties if asked.

Once enforced execution starts, the bailiff can seize the debtor's movable and immovable property and any receivables or bank funds, up to the value needed to cover the debt plus costs. Salary seizure is capped so the debtor's income never falls below the statutory minimum living wage. Ships and aircraft are seized through registration with the relevant registry. Seized assets are sold at auction, and the debtor loses the right to dispose of an asset from the moment it is seized.

If enforcement fails to recover the debt during that same voluntary-execution window, this failure itself creates a statutory presumption that the debtor is insolvent, opening the door to a bankruptcy petition under Law No. 110/2016 - a direct link from enforcement into the next step below.

Because enforcement is carried out by private, Ministry-of-Justice-licensed bailiffs rather than a court department, timelines can vary with the complexity of locating and valuing the debtor's assets. Your partner manages this process on your behalf, keeps you updated as seizure and auction steps progress, and flags promptly whenever a case looks headed toward the insolvency route below.

Cross-border debt collection: enforcing foreign judgments in Albania

Albania is an EU candidate country in active accession negotiations, not yet an EU member state, so EU-only tools such as the European Payment Order, the European Small Claims Procedure and automatic Brussels I Recast recognition do not apply here. A foreign court judgment instead needs an exequatur-style recognition procedure before the Court of Appeal (Civil Procedure Code arts. 393-398). Recognition is refused only on specific listed grounds: the foreign court lacked jurisdiction under Albanian rules, the absent defendant was not properly served, the judgment conflicts with an earlier or pending Albanian proceeding, the decision is not yet final under its own law, or it conflicts with basic principles of Albanian law. Where a bilateral or international treaty applies, its own terms take priority over this general route.

Foreign arbitral awards follow the same Court-of-Appeal recognition procedure (Civil Procedure Code art. 399). Albania has been a party to the 1958 New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards since acceding on 27 June 2001 (in force from 25 September 2001), so awards from other Convention states benefit from that established treaty framework rather than starting from scratch. Where a specific bilateral judicial-assistance treaty exists with the debtor's home country, its terms take priority over this general national route, so it is worth checking case by case.