The number of bankruptcies of individuals in 2023 increased by 20% – Kommersant

At the end of 2023, the number of court decisions declaring a citizen bankrupt and introducing a procedure for the sale of his property reached 350.8 thousand. Vyacheslav Kosakov, managing partner of NOVATOR Legal Group, spoke about this at the conference “Bankruptcy 2024”organized by the Kommersant Publishing House.

A year earlier, the number of such decisions was 278.1 thousand. Thus, the growth at the end of 2023 reached 20.7%.

According to Vyacheslav Kosakov, bankruptcy of individuals is mainly used by citizens themselves, who “in principle do not have many assets”: “This is just a tool for writing off debts to credit institutions.” About 68% of such cases end with creditors receiving nothing at all, explained Mr. Kosakov.

Large debts from individuals are usually collected as part of the bankruptcy of legal entities. Thus, according to data from the managing partner of NOVATOR Legal Group, in 2023, 5.2 thousand applications were filed to bring managers or beneficiaries to subsidiary liability for a total amount of 406.3 billion rubles.

Vyacheslav Kosakov also listed the most frequently contested transactions within the framework of bankruptcy of individuals: these are gift agreements, purchase and sale agreements on non-market conditions, marriage agreements and agreements on the division of property, transfers of funds, as well as settlement agreements. On average, bankruptcy of an individual takes 1 year and 3 months, added Mr. Kosakov.

Previously, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation recognized as a priority the right of a citizen to repay debts as part of restructuring instead of declaring him bankrupt. Even if the creditors are against it, but the plan allows the debtor to get out of the crisis, the court has the right to extend the period in case of objective obstacles to timely execution.

Read more in the publication “Kommersant” “Creditors are asked to wait”.