A notice of default for an unpaid invoice in Belgium

A Belgian notice of default tells the debtor clearly and unambiguously that you demand payment. The Civil Code sets no form for it, but if your client is a consumer, the rules for the first reminder described below apply. The letter names each invoice with its number, date, amount and due date, says that the due date has passed, and gives one final date to pay.

Between businesses, late-payment interest and a fixed compensation of €40 for each late invoice are due by law from the day after the due date, without a notice. If no payment term was agreed, a business client has 30 days to pay, counted from the day after it received the invoice. In other cases, interest at the legal rate runs from the notice of default. From a consumer, it runs only once the reminder period described below has passed.

Under Book XIX of the Code of Economic Law, a business's first letter to a private person must be a free first reminder. It asks only for the amount owed and costs the consumer nothing. It must give at least 14 days to pay, and that period starts a few working days after posting, not on the date of the letter. Our letter allows for this, so its date is later than you might expect. Post it on the day it is dated or the next day.

Interest, and a lump sum if your terms expressly provide for one, can be claimed only once that period has passed without payment. The letter gives notice of them, and the law caps the lump sum according to the amount owed. In the Complete pack, the final notice claims them. The reminder must show your name and enterprise number (ondernemingsnummer / numéro d'entreprise), so the form asks for it.

About the debt, you may contact only your client, not their employer, family or neighbours. If a business applies its late-payment clause without the free reminder or before its period ends, charges more than the law allows, or contacts anyone other than the consumer, the consumer is released from that clause by law.

Claims up to €5,000 go to the justice of the peace (vrederechter / juge de paix), and larger ones to the court of first instance. Disputes between businesses go to the enterprise court (ondernemingsrechtbank / tribunal de l'entreprise) whatever the amount. You do not need a lawyer in any of them. A bailiff (gerechtsdeurwaarder / huissier de justice) serves the summons. You do not pay the court registration fee when you file. The judge's final decision orders the party that owes it, normally the losing party, to pay it. The escalation memo in the Complete pack explains each of these steps, but does not choose one for you.

The general limitation period is 10 years. In Belgium your own demand letter does not interrupt it. A written acknowledgement by the debtor does, and so can a registered notice sent by a lawyer or bailiff in the statutory form.