Personal insolvency in Ukraine: what to check before applying

When this is needed

This guide is for a person con­sid­er­ing their own in­sol­ven­cy. If you are another debtor’s cred­i­tor, see the guide to lodging cred­i­tor claims. That is a dif­fer­ent pro­ce­dur­al role and doc­u­ment package.

Start with the reasons you cannot meet your oblig­a­tions and what you can re­al­is­ti­cal­ly afford to pay, rather than a promise of debt can­cel­la­tion. The court as­sess­es good faith as well as debt: dis­clo­sure, use of bor­rowed funds, asset move­ments and set­tle­ment at­tempts.

For example, a Lviv region res­i­dent tem­porar­i­ly works abroad, has Ukrain­ian loans and a share in the family home. Foreign ac­counts, trans­fers and jointly owned prop­er­ty also matter. Living abroad does not es­tab­lish that there is no income or au­to­mat­i­cal­ly allow filing where rel­a­tives live.

Which deadline or procedure applies

The debtor applies to the com­mer­cial court for their place of res­i­dence. The bank’s address or the rep­re­sen­ta­tive’s office does not de­ter­mine ju­ris­dic­tion. A changed res­i­dence, living abroad or re­as­signed ter­ri­to­r­i­al ju­ris­dic­tion re­quires a sep­a­rate check. Sole traders should also dis­tin­guish busi­ness li­a­bil­i­ties: this guide does not cover every special busi­ness re­struc­tur­ing regime.

Article 115 of the Bank­rupt­cy Pro­ce­dures Code in­cludes, among the grounds, stop­ping more than 50% of monthly pay­ments under each credit or other oblig­a­tion for 2 months; having no at­tach­able assets after an un­suc­cess­ful en­force­ment search; and cir­cum­stances showing a threat of in­sol­ven­cy. These grounds do not all have to be com­bined, but the ground relied upon must be proved. An old uni­ver­sal debt thresh­old cannot replace this as­sess­ment.

Ac­cep­tance of an ap­pli­ca­tion, opening pro­ceed­ings, re­struc­tur­ing and being de­clared bank­rupt are dif­fer­ent stages. The mora­to­ri­um is linked to opening pro­ceed­ings and has limits and ex­cep­tions; merely sending the doc­u­ments does not au­to­mat­i­cal­ly halt every re­cov­ery action. There is no uni­ver­sal guar­an­teed com­ple­tion time.

How to assess the costs

Sep­a­rate prac­ti­tion­er re­mu­ner­a­tion, pro­ce­dur­al ex­pens­es and the agreed rep­re­sen­ta­tive’s fee. The general rule in Ar­ti­cles 30 and 116 re­quires advance re­mu­ner­a­tion for the re­struc­tur­ing prac­ti­tion­er for 3 months; basic monthly re­mu­ner­a­tion is 5 sub­sis­tence min­i­mums for able-bodied persons. Check the amount and deposit details before paying: the advance is not a guar­an­teed all-in­clu­sive price for the case.

Para­graph 1-6 of the Code’s tran­si­tion­al pro­vi­sions allows pro­ceed­ings without that deposit during martial law and for 6 months after it ends or is lifted, under a suit­able agree­ment with an in­sol­ven­cy prac­ti­tion­er cov­er­ing the case until closure and payment within the Code’s limits. Attach the agree­ment to the ap­pli­ca­tion; lack of money alone cannot sub­sti­tute for it.

The Law on Court Fees does not set a sep­a­rate fee for an in­di­vid­ual’s initial ap­pli­ca­tion con­cern­ing their own in­sol­ven­cy. Other ap­pli­ca­tions, law­suits or appeals may have their own fee rules. An or­di­nary lawsuit fee cal­cu­la­tor cannot de­ter­mine the budget for this pro­ce­dure.

How to act step by step

1. List the oblig­a­tions. For each cred­i­tor, record the agree­ment, charges, pay­ments, se­cu­ri­ty, court case and en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings. Dis­tin­guish ad­mit­ted and dis­put­ed amounts.
2. Ev­i­dence the fi­nan­cial po­si­tion. Gather income, ac­counts, nec­es­sary ex­pens­es, assets and family in­for­ma­tion as re­quired by Article 116. Explain the causes of in­sol­ven­cy; a screen­shot showing a total in a lending account is in­suf­fi­cient prepa­ra­tion.
3. Compare al­ter­na­tives. Request a written cal­cu­la­tion and pos­si­ble set­tle­ment terms. If the debt or en­force­ment in­stru­ment is dis­put­ed, sep­a­rate­ly check the remedy and dead­lines: waiting for bank­rupt­cy does not pre­serve them.
4. Work through the plan and prac­ti­tion­er par­tic­i­pa­tion. The draft re­struc­tur­ing plan needs re­al­is­tic payment sources and nec­es­sary ex­pens­es. The prac­ti­tion­er is a sep­a­rate court-ap­point­ed par­tic­i­pant with statu­to­ry powers, rather than another name for your lawyer.
5. Prepare the Article 116 package. The ap­pli­ca­tion, at­tach­ments, de­c­la­ra­tions, draft plan and prac­ti­tion­er and payment doc­u­ments must be con­sis­tent. Keep filing ev­i­dence and comply with court re­quire­ments to correct defects.
6. Par­tic­i­pate after opening. Co­op­er­ate with the prac­ti­tion­er, examine cred­i­tor claims and provide truth­ful in­for­ma­tion. The plan re­quires the agree­ment and ap­proval pre­scribed by law; in­abil­i­ty to im­ple­ment it needs a sep­a­rate pro­ce­dur­al as­sess­ment.

What to check before filing

Com­plete de­c­la­ra­tions. Article 116 re­quires more than in­for­ma­tion about one salary account. Check the ap­plic­a­ble re­port­ing periods, family members, assets, income, ex­pens­es and Ukrain­ian and foreign ac­counts. If in­for­ma­tion is un­avail­able, record why and the re­quests made to obtain it; a missing doc­u­ment does not es­tab­lish that an asset does not exist.

Prop­er­ty con­se­quences. The debt re­pay­ment stage can involve asset sales. Ar­ti­cles 131–132 set rules and ex­cep­tions for the liq­ui­da­tion estate, but a sole home, mort­gage, joint own­er­ship or an own­er­ship share needs an in­di­vid­ual as­sess­ment. Trans­fer­ring assets to rel­a­tives does not create lawful pro­tec­tion and may be chal­lenged.

Debts that remain. Article 134 pre­serves, among other things, main­te­nance, spec­i­fied com­pen­sa­tion claims for harm caused by a crim­i­nal offence, injury or death, and other claims in­sep­a­ra­bly linked to the in­di­vid­ual. Dis­charge of other li­a­bil­i­ties depends on the court’s de­ci­sion and com­pli­ance with the pro­ce­dure, rather than an in­ter­me­di­ary’s promise.

Later re­stric­tions. Article 135 in­cludes a 5-year re­stric­tion on a repeat ap­pli­ca­tion, with an ex­cep­tion for full re­pay­ment, a duty for 5 years to dis­close in­sol­ven­cy in writing before spec­i­fied credit and se­cu­ri­ty agree­ments, and an in­abil­i­ty to be re­gard­ed as having an im­pec­ca­ble busi­ness rep­u­ta­tion for 3 years after being de­clared bank­rupt. Assess these con­se­quences before ap­ply­ing.

When to consult a lawyer

For a con­sul­ta­tion in Lviv or a remote review, collect Ukrain­ian and foreign account state­ments, joint own­er­ship doc­u­ments and a list of claims. The debt and en­force­ment page can be used to agree a review of debt grounds, pay­ments and the ap­pro­pri­ate remedy.

At the con­sul­ta­tion, dis­tin­guish debt review, prepa­ra­tion of pro­ce­dur­al doc­u­ments and the in­sol­ven­cy prac­ti­tion­er’s statu­to­ry func­tions. Agree the scope of rep­re­sen­ta­tion and any spe­cial­ist in­volve­ment after as­sess­ment. An initial review does not mean that pro­ceed­ings will nec­es­sar­i­ly open or that every claim will be dis­charged.