Recently, Decision No. 642/2026 of the Single-Member Court of First Instance of Athens was published. By this decision, the Court ordered the registration of our client’s name, as an individual, in the Electronic Solvency Register for debts owed to the State and Social Security Institutions amounting to €1,600,000, pursuant to Articles 172 et seq. of the Greek Insolvency Code, Law 4738/2020.
In this case, prior to the filing of the bankruptcy application, the Greek State had imposed an attachment in the hands of a third party against our client, namely in the hands of his employer, over existing and future salary claims. Before the attachment was imposed, our client’s income exceeded both the annual reasonable living expenses and twelve times the protected, non-attachable amount provided for in Article 33 para. 2 of the Code for the Collection of Public Revenue, Law 4978/2022. Following the attachment, however, his total disposable income, after deduction of employment income tax and employee social security contributions, fell below the above thresholds.
Accordingly, the Court, taking into account that where an attachment in the hands of a third party has been imposed before the declaration of bankruptcy, the bankruptcy does not affect the rights of the attaching creditor over the debtor’s future claims which were compulsorily assigned by virtue of the attachment but have not yet arisen, pursuant to Article 100 para. 2 of Law 4738/2020, held that:
“the amount … which the applicant’s employer undertook to withhold from his monthly salary and remit to the Greek State is now excluded from the bankruptcy estate and, therefore, the applicant’s annual earnings now amount to … euros, an amount which does not exceed twelve times the non-attachable amount under Article 33 § 2 of Law 4978/2022, namely €15,000 (12 x 1,250), which is higher than the amount of the annual reasonable living expenses of the applicant and his family.”
It should be noted that the applicant’s annual earnings fell short of twelve times the non-attachable amount by less than €300.
Subsequently, having found that our client’s assets, namely: (a) a private passenger vehicle first registered in 2004, the value of which, according to common experience, does not exceed €3,000; and (b) his almost non-existent bank deposits, were insufficient to cover the costs of the bankruptcy proceedings, the Court did not appoint an insolvency administrator. Instead, it ordered the registration of our client’s name in the Electronic Solvency Register, as well as in the General Commercial Registry, due to the existence of an active sole proprietorship.
