An assignment agreement makes you the creditor, but it does not automatically bring you into court or enforcement proceedings already under way. In court proceedings the original claimant must apply for you to enter in its place and the transfer must be proved; in enforcement, the change is notified to the enforcement officer and the court issues a supplement to the authorisation. During enforcement, an assignment is effective only if the entire claim being enforced is assigned. Debtors must be notified of the assignment, otherwise they may discharge the debt by paying the original creditor.
A buyer of a package of receivables, or a company taking them over from another company in the group, is not buying invoices alone. A portfolio tends to contain receivables at various stages: overdue with no step taken, with an application for an order for payment filed, with a final judgment, and with enforcement under way. An assignment agreement transfers the receivables to the new creditor, but each set of proceedings has its own rules on how the creditor is changed in it. The procedure below applies to Slovak proceedings; for Czech debtors, the Czech Code of Civil Procedure starts from the same logic.
Debtors first: notice of the assignment
The assignor is obliged to notify the assignment of the receivable to the debtor without undue delay. Until the assignment of the receivable is notified to the debtor, or until the assignee proves the assignment to the debtor, the debtor discharges the obligation by performing to the assignor.
— Section 526(1) of Act No. 40/1964 Coll. (unofficial English translation)
For the buyer it is safer if the notice is sent by the seller: the debtor then cannot demand production of the assignment agreement (Section 526(2)). The debtor retains all the objections it had against the receivable at the time of the assignment, and may set off against you its own receivables against the seller, if it had them at the time of the notice and notified them to you in time (Section 529). If the receivable is secured by a surety or a lien, the seller must also inform the person who provided the security of the assignment and hand over to you all the documents (Section 528). A change of creditor does not affect the limitation period (Section 111), so on purchase check as well how much of it remains for each receivable. Czech law has a corresponding rule on notice (Section 1882 of Act No. 89/2012 Sb.), and as against a surety an assignment is effective only once the surety has been informed (Section 1883).
Court proceedings: entering in the claimant’s place
Where the assignment occurred after the action or the application for an order for payment was filed, the new creditor does not enter the proceedings by itself. The application is made by the existing claimant and the court grants it on the statutory conditions:
The court shall grant an application under subsection 1 if it is proved that after the commencement of the proceedings the right or the obligation was transferred or passed, and if the person who is to enter in the claimant’s place consents. The legal effects associated with the filing of the action are preserved.
— Section 80(2) of Act No. 160/2015 Coll. (unofficial English translation)
The preservation of the effects of the action means that limitation, which the filing halted, does not start to run again on the change of creditor. The new creditor does, however, accept the state of the proceedings as at the date of entry (Section 80(3)), including procedural opportunities already missed. Since the application must be made by the seller, its duty to make it without delay and to provide cooperation belongs directly in the portfolio purchase agreement. In Czechia, the entry of an acquirer into proceedings is governed by Section 107a of Act No. 99/1963 Sb., with the same condition of consent from the person entering in the claimant’s place.
Enforcement: the whole claim being enforced must be assigned
Where, after the authorisation to carry out enforcement has been issued, a fact occurs on the basis of which the rights or obligations arising from the enforcement title are transferred or pass, the parties to the proceedings are obliged to notify that fact to the enforcement officer without delay and to evidence its occurrence. During enforcement, an assignment of the claim being enforced is effective only where the entire claim being enforced is assigned.
— Section 37(1) of Act No. 233/1995 Coll. (unofficial English translation)
The enforcement officer submits the notification to the court, which reflects the change in a supplement to the authorisation to carry out enforcement (Section 37(2) and (3)). The transfer is evidenced by a public instrument or another instrument from which it follows (Section 36(2)), as a rule therefore by an assignment agreement in which the particular receivable is unambiguously identified. An assignment of the principal alone, without accessories, is not effective during enforcement under way; if the seller wishes to retain part of the claim for itself, that must be dealt with differently. If you have an enforcement title for the receivable but enforcement has not yet commenced, an application in favour of the new creditor is possible if you prove that the right under the title has passed to it (Section 36(1)).
What belongs in a portfolio purchase agreement
- Precise identification of each receivable, including accessories, file numbers and the state of the proceedings.
- Cooperation from the seller on notices to debtors, applications for a change of party and notifications to enforcement officers, with deadlines.
- A guarantee of recoverability, if you want one: the seller is a guarantor only where it has undertaken this in writing, and then up to the amount of the consideration received together with interest; the guarantee is extinguished if you do not pursue the receivable before the court without undue delay (Section 527(2)).
- The tax regime: provisions by reference to the time since the due date do not apply to a receivable acquired by assignment (Section 20(15) of Act No. 595/2003 Coll.); we describe the implications in the question on when we can claim an irrecoverable receivable as a tax expense.
If the receivables are to continue to be pursued by the original creditor for your account, the law permits this at the assignee’s request (Section 530(1)).
Consumer credit: not everyone may buy it
If the portfolio contains receivables under consumer credit agreements, first verify whether they may be assigned to you at all. An assignment is valid only where the receivable is assigned with all the rights attached to it, where the acquirer is a creditor authorised to provide consumer credit without any limitation of scope (Section 20(1)(a)), a bank, a foreign bank or a branch of a foreign bank, and where the assignment takes place only after the credit has fallen due or after the receivable has become due prematurely (Section 17(1) of Act No. 129/2010 Coll.). A special rule applies to non-performing credit provided by a credit institution, to which these restrictions do not apply (Section 17(5)). From 20 November 2026, Act No. 129/2010 Coll. is replaced by Act No. 312/2025 Coll. Entry into court proceedings and into enforcement also depends on the validity of the assignment, so address this question before signing the agreement, not only when applying for a change of party.
For all consumer receivables, the rules on prohibited practices in debt collection apply in addition; we describe them in the question on when and where we may contact a debtor.
How we can help
We prepare the assignment agreement, with the schedule of receivables, the guarantee and the cooperation obligations, under our assignment and set-off of receivables service. We then sort the portfolio taken over by stage, file applications for a change of party and notifications to enforcement officers in batches, and continue the recovery under bulk debt recovery, for debtors in Slovakia and in Czechia alike.
This answer provides general information on the law as at 12 September 2026. It does not constitute legal services or replace an assessment of an individual case. The details of your situation may differ. Book a consultation to discuss them.
