Czech Radio: More than 2,000 Czech children are threatened with unpaid debts
Published: Nov 4, 2021 Reading time: 1 minuteIn the Czech Republic, there is still more than 2,000 children that face property seizure over unpaid debts. Most of the children’s debts were caused by unpaid fines for fare-dodging, unpaid hospital fees, telephone bills or library fines. This happens despite a new amendment to the Civil Code that prevents minors from falling into debt – as our expert on the debt issues Daniel Hůle says, the problem is that the amendment does not address debts that have already originated.
Thousands of children in the Czech Republic are still threatened with a distraint order over unpaid debts caused in the past by their parents – originally a few crowns debt have increased many times due to various forms of penalties.
Despite an amendment to the Civil Code from July this year that transfers the responsibility from children to their parents or other legal representatives, and thus making it impossible for minors under the age of 15 to fall into a debt trap, our expert on debt issues Daniel Hůle says the new legislation doesn’t deal with debts that originated prior to that date:
“The amendment effective from July 1 will certainly help in the future, because it clearly specifies conditions under which child foreclosures can arise. However, it doesn’t address debts that have already originated. It does give the lenders a chance to write off the debts across the board. But, unfortunately, nothing like that has happened,” said Hůle for Czech Radio. According to a whole range of psychologists, the stress from owing at such a young age can have a serious impact on their mental health.
