Belgian bailiffs recover your undisputed B2B invoices without a judge — from the first ingebrekestelling to enforcement. First results typically within 20 days. You pay only when money moves.
Geachte heer/mevrouw, wij vertegenwoordigen uw schuldeiser met betrekking tot de hierboven vermelde handelsschuld, die momenteel vervallen en onbetaald is.
Wij verzoeken u het volledige verschuldigde bedrag te voldoen binnen zeven dagen na de datum van deze brief, vermeerderd met de wettelijke verwijlinteresten conform de Wet van 2 augustus 2002 betreffende de bestrijding van de betalingsachterstand bij handelstransacties. Bij gebreke van betaling zijn wij gemachtigd om zonder verder bericht over te gaan tot de IOS-procedure: aanmaning door een gerechtsdeurwaarder, gevolgd door een proces-verbaal van niet-betwisting indien de vordering onbetwist blijft — zonder tussenkomst van een rechter.
Onze correspondent-deurwaarder in uw arrondissement is reeds op de hoogte van het dossier.
This is what your Belgian debtor receives — in Dutch for Flanders, in French for Wallonia, always under the law of the debtor's region. Hover the black bars — that is where your debtor's name goes.
Undisputed Belgian B2B debts run through a bailiff, not a courtroom — the fastest 'no judge' path we cover. Tap a stage — see what the debtor receives, what it costs them, and what the law hands you next.
„Onze administratie toont aan dat factuur ████ ten bedrage van € ██.███ nog steeds onbetaald is…“
„Wij stellen u in gebreke voor het openstaande bedrag, te betalen binnen zeven dagen…“
„Aanmaning tot betaling, betekend door gerechtsdeurwaarder, zonder tussenkomst van een rechter…“
„Bij gebrek aan betwisting binnen de gestelde termijn wordt een proces-verbaal van niet-betwisting opgesteld…“
„Uitvoering aangevangen. Beslag gelegd op de rekeningen van ██████ BVBA…“
Cosmodca runs this ladder for overseas creditors every day — a debt collection agency for Belgium that files, records, and enforces locally while you follow the case in one dashboard. Debtor elsewhere in Europe? See European debt collection or the international debt collection agency desk.
Creditors in the US, UK, Germany, France, and beyond place Belgian cases with one desk — a correspondent bailiff on the ground, one dashboard in your language.
The payment numbers out of Belgium are some of the starkest we cover — which is exactly why undisputed claims deserve the fastest instrument available:
Statbel reports 11,665 business bankruptcies for 2025 (+5.4% on 2024), but every statbel.fgov.be path returned a connection failure on repeated verification attempts, so the figure could not be confirmed against the primary source and is not shown here. Sources: Atradius Payment Practices Barometer, Belgium 2026 · US Census Bureau, Trade in Goods with Belgium
Debt collection in Belgium is the recovery of overdue invoices from Belgian businesses on behalf of the creditor — formal notice, and, where the debt is undisputed, the IOS procedure through a bailiff without a judge. For an overseas creditor, a debt collection agency for Belgium runs the entire ladder locally while you keep one contact.
Your case reaches a Belgian collector the same day.
Live entity and trading address checked against Belgian company registers.
Herinnering and ingebrekestelling citing the Wet van 2 augustus 2002. Most Belgian cases settle here.
A gerechtsdeurwaarder serves the demand — no court filing, no judge, from day one.
Non-contestation recorded and stamped enforceable by a magistrate — without a hearing.
The same bailiff executes: account and asset seizure, or funds transferred with a full report. No recovery, no fee.
Three models cover nearly every Belgian commercial case. The percentage depends on claim age, size, and complexity. Bailiff and legal costs are quoted and approved by you before any filing.
A flat-fee Belgian demand sequence under your name — herinnering and ingebrekestelling. Escalates only if the debtor stays silent.
A success fee on the amount actually recovered. Nothing upfront. Nothing on failure. Statutory interest under the 2002 law often offsets part of the cost.
IOS through our correspondent bailiff, or ordinary proceedings where the debt is disputed. For urgency, the fast debt collection service; for contested claims, attorney-based debt collection from day one.
Belgium's IOS procedure means a debtor who doesn't contest the debt never sees a courtroom — a gerechtsdeurwaarder serves the demand, records non-contestation, and a magistrate does nothing but stamp it. What moves a Belgian debtor isn't a louder email from overseas, it's a demand that already has a bailiff attached to it. Specialist B2B debt collection puts that machinery behind your receivable on a success-fee basis, with industry desks for manufacturing, logistics, healthcare, aviation, maritime, and technology.
Debt collection in Belgium runs through an escalation that reaches a bailiff faster than almost anywhere else we cover: a herinnering, then an ingebrekestelling putting the debtor in default, and — for undisputed B2B debts — the IOS procedure, where a gerechtsdeurwaarder serves the demand and, absent contestation, records it as enforceable without ever involving a judge.
A Belgian business that ignores a commercial debt faces statutory interest under the 2002 late-payment law, liability for recovery costs, and — if the debt is undisputed — a bailiff-recorded proces-verbaal of non-contestation that a magistrate stamps enforceable. Belgian debtors who understand IOS know that silence is the fastest way to lose.
IOS — Invordering van Onbetwiste Schulden — lets a bailiff collect an undisputed B2B debt without a judge at any point. It applies only between enterprises, which is exactly this page's audience, and it's the strongest 'no courtroom' instrument of any country we cover.
On the contingency model, nothing upfront: the success fee is a percentage of the amount actually recovered, quoted in writing before you place the case. Belgian law also works in your favor — the debtor in default owes statutory interest and recovery costs under the 2002 late-payment law, which routinely offsets part or all of the fee.
IOS only works for undisputed debts. The moment a Belgian debtor genuinely contests the claim, the bailiff cannot record non-contestation and the case moves to ordinary court proceedings — where our attorneys in the debtor's arrondissement take over.
Yes, directly. IOS doesn't require a Belgian judgment first, so for most undisputed unpaid invoices it's faster to use the bailiff route than to enforce a foreign judgment. Where the debt is genuinely disputed, our Belgian attorneys assess the ordinary-proceedings route instead.
The longer read for creditors doing their homework: how Belgian collection actually runs, IOS as the strongest 'no courtroom' story we cover, the procedure in detail, what Belgian law already gives you, and when placing a case is the wrong move. Open what matters.
A debt collection agency working Belgium for an overseas creditor does four things you cannot efficiently do from abroad. It verifies the debtor against Belgian company registers. It applies pressure with an ingebrekestelling citing the 2002 late-payment law. It escalates through IOS — a bailiff-run procedure that reaches enforcement without a judge for undisputed claims. And it enforces through the same bailiff, in the debtor's own arrondissement.
The alternative is instructing a Belgian bailiff or attorney directly and coordinating it yourself, across a language and a legal system you don't work in. A specialist debt collection agency for Belgium runs the same ladder on a success-fee basis, and you deal with one contact and one dashboard.
Invordering van Onbetwiste Schulden — recovery of undisputed debts — has run under Article 1394/20-27 of the Judicial Code since 2016, and it applies only between enterprises. A gerechtsdeurwaarder serves the demand; if the debtor doesn't contest it, the same bailiff records a proces-verbaal of non-contestation, which a magistrate makes enforceable with a stamp — no hearing, no judgment, no courtroom.
Of the ten countries on this site, Belgium is the one where an undisputed B2B debt genuinely never has to see a judge. That's what makes an early, well-documented ingebrekestelling worth getting right — it's the foundation the whole bailiff-run procedure rests on.
Once the ingebrekestelling has run its course, the bailiff serves a formal payment demand directly on the debtor, setting out the sum owed and the period within which the debtor may contest it. If that period passes without a genuine contestation, the bailiff draws up a proces-verbaal of non-contestation, and a magistrate's stamp — not a hearing — makes it enforceable.
If the debtor does contest within the stated period, the claim leaves IOS and proceeds through ordinary court channels instead, where our attorneys in the debtor's arrondissement take it over. We don't publish an exact response-window figure here until it's been confirmed against an official source — your case manager will confirm the current period at assessment.
The Wet van 2 augustus 2002 — Belgium's transposition of the EU Late Payment Directive (2011/7/EU) — entitles a B2B creditor to statutory default interest and reasonable recovery costs once the debtor is in default, on top of the principal. We cite that entitlement in the ingebrekestelling as a matter of course.
Industry data puts the recoverable share of a receivable near 94 percent at 30 days past due and below 30 percent past a year, in Belgium as everywhere else — which is why the ingebrekestelling goes out immediately, not after a polite delay.
Candor is cheaper than a wasted mandate. If the debtor is already in faillissement, IOS cannot be used — the file belongs with the curator, and we will tell you so at assessment. If the debtor genuinely disputes what you delivered, IOS is the wrong instrument entirely; the case needs ordinary proceedings from the start, not a bailiff's demand. And if the claim is past the applicable limitation period, no collector revives it.
Everything else — the silent BVBA, the debtor who "never received" the invoice, the customer betting an overseas creditor won't instruct a Belgian bailiff — is exactly what this desk exists for. The assessment costs nothing and tells you which category your case is in. Debtors elsewhere belong with the European debt collection desk or the global coverage hub.
Free assessment · answer within one business day · no recovery, no fee
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