Hungary to introduce family bankruptcy

As Christian Democrat MPs table a new bill on family insolvency, a liberal columnist fears that even this scheme will not bail out families in extreme need. A conservative commentator on the other hand believes that the government is offering effective help for all different types of debtors, to save them from eviction and the loss of their property.

On Wednesday, Christian Democrat MPs submitted to Parliament the bill on personal bankruptcy to help families that cannot meet mortgage repayment obligations despite the conversion of FX loans to forint credit, and are threatened by eviction. According to the draft, one part of insolvent families’ remaining debt is to be waived, after five years of caretaker supervision. According to the draft, personal bankruptcy will be available for debtors whose accrued debt does not exceed 60 million Forints, and is less than 200 per cent of the total value of their current assets, plus the projected income in the five years of supervision.

In Index, Bence Stubnya fears that family bankruptcy will not be available for those who are in the direst need. He suspects that those whose accrued debt exceeds 200 per cent of the value of their current assets “are not considered as worthy of being saved by the government.”

The new household bankruptcy act will complete the government’s project to abolish FX loans and help indebted families, Gergely Kiss comments in Napi Gazdaság. The pro-government columnist reject concerns that those who cannot file for bankruptcy are ignored by the government, since these families have the option to sell their property to the National Property Management public company. After this, they will be cleared of their debt and will not have to leave their houses but can rent it from the new public owner.

Tags: credit, KDNP, loan