Debt recovery claim: evidence, limitation period and court fee

When this is needed

This guide is for cases where a debtor has not repaid money under an IOU, loan agree­ment, supply, lease, ser­vices or another oblig­a­tion. A debt re­cov­ery claim should not be an emo­tion­al list of demands; it should set out a clear chronol­o­gy: who had to pay, when, on what basis and why they did not.

In Lviv, do not au­to­mat­i­cal­ly choose the nearest court. If the debtor is reg­is­tered in another dis­trict or the dispute is con­nect­ed with busi­ness ac­tiv­i­ty, the route may differ. In­cor­rect ju­ris­dic­tion or venue often delays a case before the merits are even con­sid­ered.

For a company’s prop­er­ty claim in com­mer­cial pro­ceed­ings, check the claim package and fee payment pro­ce­dure and es­ti­mate the amount with the com­mer­cial court fee cal­cu­la­tor. The court for a Lviv company is de­ter­mined by pro­ce­dur­al rules, not only by its reg­is­tered address.

If you are the cred­i­tor and have not yet filed a claim, first check whether a court order ap­pli­ca­tion fits your case. The pre­lim­i­nary el­i­gi­bil­i­ty and fee checker helps dis­tin­guish an order ap­pli­ca­tion from a lawsuit, but it cannot assess your ev­i­dence or venue for you.

If a court order or en­force­ment pro­ceed­ing already exists for the debt, first es­tab­lish which doc­u­ment is in force. A new claim may not be needed; the next step may be can­celling the court order, ap­ply­ing to an en­force­ment officer or ad­dress­ing an account seizure.

If in­sol­ven­cy pro­ceed­ings have already been opened against the debtor, an or­di­nary claim may be the wrong route. Check how a cred­i­tor can lodge claims in bank­rupt­cy pro­ceed­ings and do not miss the special dead­line running from the of­fi­cial notice.

Applicable time limit or procedure

The general lim­i­ta­tion period under the Civil Code is three years, but that alone is not enough for a debt claim. A penalty may have a shorter period, in­stal­ments may be cal­cu­lat­ed sep­a­rate­ly, and ac­knowl­edg­ment of the debt or partial payment may change the analy­sis. Before filing, check the cal­en­dar with the lim­i­ta­tion period cal­cu­la­tor and compare the result with your doc­u­ments.

If an IOU or loan agree­ment does not set a re­pay­ment date, first es­tab­lish default under the guide to de­mand­ing re­pay­ment of a loan with no fixed term, then count the special 30 days only after doc­u­ment­ed de­liv­ery, unless the agree­ment spec­i­fies a dif­fer­ent period after demand.

A claim under the Civil Pro­ce­dure Code must iden­ti­fy the court and parties, state the claim value, provide a rea­soned cal­cu­la­tion, facts, ev­i­dence, court costs and a list of at­tach­ments. Com­mer­cial cases follow a similar logic, but the route and pro­ce­dur­al re­quire­ments depend on the Com­mer­cial Pro­ce­dure Code and the parties’ status.

For prop­er­ty claims, the court fee is tied to the claim value and the sub­sis­tence minimum for able-bodied persons as of 1 January of the filing year. In 2026 that figure is UAH 3,328, but check the final amount and payment details before paying on the spe­cif­ic court’s website or the of­fi­cial court-fee page.

Steps to take

First, as­sem­ble the ev­i­dence. For a loan, this may include an IOU, trans­fer record, cor­re­spon­dence and re­pay­ment date. For a busi­ness debt, gather the con­tract, in­voic­es, cer­tifi­cates, con­sign­ment notes and tax or banking doc­u­ments. If some arrange­ments were made in a mes­sag­ing app, prepare the elec­tron­ic ev­i­dence so you can explain it to the court.

Next, cal­cu­late the claim. Keep prin­ci­pal, 3% annual in­ter­est, in­fla­tion losses, con­trac­tu­al penalty and fines sep­a­rate. Each ad­di­tion­al amount needs a period, formula and legal basis. If the amount is in­flat­ed or un­ex­plained, the court may reject part of it or ask for clar­i­fi­ca­tion. Also plan whether to recover legal fees after judg­ment, since the pro­ce­dur­al dead­line for ev­i­dence of those costs is short.

If the dispute con­cerns a payment called earnest money, do not au­to­mat­i­cal­ly add it to prin­ci­pal. First review the sce­nario cal­cu­la­tion of the con­se­quences for earnest money and the guide to written form, advance pay­ments and re­pay­ment demands.

Then check the court. If the parties are in­di­vid­u­als acting outside a busi­ness context, assess civil venue. If they act as sole pro­pri­etors or com­pa­nies in busi­ness ac­tiv­i­ty, con­sid­er com­mer­cial court ju­ris­dic­tion. For a con­tract with a place of per­for­mance, several de­fen­dants or an unusual debtor address, confirm the route before paying the fee. At the same time, prepare the filing package: the claim and at­tach­ments, ev­i­dence that copies were sent to the other par­tic­i­pants, and the fee receipt or doc­u­ments es­tab­lish­ing an ex­emp­tion. For online filing, check your elec­tron­ic account, file formats and de­liv­ery ev­i­dence.

If the debtor has listed assets for sale or other ev­i­dence in­di­cates a risk to en­force­ment of the future judg­ment, sep­a­rate­ly assess interim relief for the claim before filing. Pre­serve ev­i­dence of the risk and explain how the pro­posed measure relates to the debt claim; this does not replace proof of the debt itself.

What to check before filing

Before filing, assess the risk that the de­fen­dant will argue that the lim­i­ta­tion period expired. If the debt is old, this may be the main defence. Prepare your chronol­o­gy and explain why the period has not expired or how it is cal­cu­lat­ed. If you are the de­fen­dant in a debt case, see the sep­a­rate guide to expiry of the lim­i­ta­tion period.

Second is the ev­i­dence. Check the quality of the ev­i­dence. The court may ask for the orig­i­nal written ev­i­dence, and an un­ver­i­fied copy may not per­suade it. If you rely on screen­shots, emails or files, con­sid­er how to es­tab­lish their origin and con­nec­tion to the debtor.

Third is en­force­ment of a future judg­ment. A claim may be legally strong but dif­fi­cult to collect in prac­tice. If there is a risk of assets being trans­ferred, mul­ti­ple debtors, older pro­ceed­ings or seizures, assess the en­force­ment strat­e­gy before filing. Once you receive the en­force­ment doc­u­ment, the dead­line cal­cu­la­tor for pre­sent­ing it for en­force­ment can help.

When to consult a lawyer

A lawyer is useful when the amount is sub­stan­tial, doc­u­ments are in­com­plete, there are several debtors, partial pay­ments, busi­ness parties or a dispute about the lim­i­ta­tion period. A weak cal­cu­la­tion or the wrong court can un­der­mine even an ap­par­ent­ly clear debt.

For Lviv cases, advice before filing helps check ju­ris­dic­tion, the court fee, ev­i­dence, time limits and later en­force­ment. If the debtor is no longer re­spond­ing or is trans­fer­ring assets, sep­a­rate­ly assess interim relief and a prompt en­force­ment route.