How to Freeze a Debtor's Assets in Romania

Legal position as at: 2 November 2026

At a glance

Who this is for: creditors with a money claim against a Romanian debtor that may move or hide its assets. The Romanian measures are open to creditors from anywhere, including the UK, the US, India and Switzerland; the EU account preservation order is open only to creditors domiciled in an EU Member State other than Denmark.
First thing to do: file the main claim in court and, with it, the application for a freezing measure. A precautionary attachment requires proof that the claim has been filed (CPC art. 953(1)).
The main deadline: if the court sets security, it must be paid within the time the court fixes, or the measure lapses by law (art. 956).

A creditor whose debtor may sell assets or empty accounts needs a measure that keeps those assets available until it has an enforceable title (titlu executoriu), that is, a judgment or other document that can be enforced. This guide explains which measure fits which situation, what the creditor must show, what security it may have to provide and which deadlines apply. It covers the Romanian Civil Procedure Code (Law 134/2010, republished, the CPC), Regulation (EU) No 1215/2012 (Brussels Ia) and Regulation (EU) No 655/2014 on the European Account Preservation Order. For the main claim itself, see suing a Romanian company; for the overall choice of route, our guide to debt recovery in Romania.

The measures

Precautionary attachment (sechestru asigurător): freezes the debtor's movable and immovable assets for a money claim (CPC art. 952 to 959).
Precautionary garnishment (poprire asigurătorie): freezes money and other intangible assets owed to the debtor by third parties, bank accounts included (art. 970 and 971).
Judicial sequestration (sechestru judiciar): places a specific asset in the custody of an administrator, mainly where the asset itself is in dispute (art. 972 to 976).
Interim injunction (ordonanță președințială): provisional orders in urgent cases, where none of the specific measures fits (art. 997 to 1002).
European Account Preservation Order: freezes bank accounts in cross-border cases, available to creditors domiciled in an EU Member State (Regulation 655/2014).

Demand letter first, or claim and freezing order first?

Our articles on the payment order describe a route that starts with a formal demand: the creditor serves a demand, through a bailiff or by registered letter with declared contents and acknowledgment of receipt, giving the debtor 15 days to pay (CPC art. 1015(1)). That demand is required only for the payment order procedure. For an ordinary claim, no pre-action step is needed unless a law expressly requires one (art. 193(1)).

The two routes therefore pull in different directions. A 15-day demand warns the debtor before anything is frozen. An ordinary claim filed together with an application for precautionary attachment gives no such warning, because the court decides the application without summoning the parties (art. 954(2)) and the bailiff carries it out without prior notice (art. 955(2)). Where there is a real risk that the debtor will move funds, that difference matters; where the debt is undisputed and there is no such risk, the payment order remains an option (see payment orders in Romania).

For an unpaid invoice at risk: if the claim is evidenced in writing and due, file the ordinary claim and, with it, apply for precautionary garnishment of the debtor's bank accounts and precautionary attachment of its other assets (art. 953(1), 970 and 971(2)).

Precautionary attachment of assets

What it does

Under precautionary attachment, the debtor's attachable movable or immovable assets, whether held by the debtor or by a third party, become unavailable, so that they can be sold once the creditor obtains an enforceable title (CPC art. 952). It freezes; it does not pay. The assets can be sold only after the creditor has obtained the enforceable title (art. 958).

Conditions

The claim must already be filed. A creditor without an enforceable title whose claim is evidenced in writing and is due may apply for attachment if it proves that it has filed a claim in court; the court may require security in an amount it fixes (art. 953(1)). The measure is therefore not available before the main action has been started; in practice the application is filed with the statement of claim or shortly after. Where the dispute goes to arbitration seated in Romania, protective measures can be requested before or during the arbitration from the tribunal (tribunalul) in whose district the arbitration takes place (art. 585(1), art. 547(1)), attaching the request for arbitration (or, failing that, proof of the written notice to appoint the arbitrators under art. 558(2)) and the arbitration agreement (art. 585(2)).

Written evidence changes the security. A creditor whose claim is not evidenced in writing must deposit security of half the amount claimed with the application (art. 953(2)). With written evidence, security is at the court's discretion (art. 953(1)).

A claim not yet due. The court may grant attachment even before the claim falls due where the debtor has reduced, by its own act, the security given to the creditor, has not given the security it promised, or where there is a risk that the debtor will evade enforcement or hide or squander its assets. In those cases security is compulsory and fixed by the court (art. 953(3)).

Procedure

Court and assets. The application goes to the court competent to hear the case at first instance, and the creditor does not have to identify the assets it wants frozen (art. 954(1)).
Without notice to the debtor. The court decides urgently, in chambers, without summoning the parties, by an enforceable decision that states the amount up to which attachment is allowed and, where applicable, the security and the time for paying it (art. 954(2)). The decision may be postponed by at most 24 hours and the reasons must be written within 48 hours (art. 954(4), referring to art. 999(4)).
Execution by the bailiff. A court bailiff carries out the measure without further authorisation (art. 955(1)) and without prior notice to the debtor, seizing only what is needed to cover the claim (art. 955(2)).
Registration. Attachment of assets subject to publicity formalities is entered at once in the land register, the trade register, the Electronic Archive of Security Interests in Movable Property or other public registers, which makes it effective against anyone who later acquires rights in the asset (art. 955(3)).
Challenges. The decision is served on the creditor by the court and on the debtor by the bailiff when the measure is carried out; it can be challenged only by appeal (apel) within 5 days of service (art. 954(3)). The way the measure is carried out can be contested by a challenge to enforcement (art. 955(4)).

How it ends

If the creditor does not pay the security within the time set, the attachment lapses by law (art. 956).
The debtor can ask the court to lift the attachment by providing sufficient security of its own (art. 957(1)).
If the main claim is annulled, dismissed or declared lapsed for inactivity (perimată) by a final decision, or the creditor withdraws it, the debtor can ask the court that ordered the measure to lift it (art. 957(2)).

Precautionary garnishment: bank accounts and receivables

Precautionary garnishment applies to sums of money, securities and other attachable intangible assets that a third party owes the debtor, or will owe it under an existing legal relationship, on the same conditions as precautionary attachment (art. 970, referring to art. 953). In practice this covers the debtor's bank accounts and the payments its own customers owe it.

The procedure, execution, lapse and lifting follow the rules for precautionary attachment (art. 971(1)), and in an application for bank garnishment the creditor does not have to name the banks (art. 971(2)).

Judicial sequestration and interim injunctions

Judicial sequestration places assets in the custody of an administrator appointed by the court (art. 972), mainly where ownership, possession or the use of an asset is in dispute (art. 973(1)). It can also be granted without a pending case over movable assets that form the creditor's security, where the creditor shows that the debtor is insolvent, or has good reason to suspect that the debtor will evade enforcement, or fears theft or damage (art. 973(2) lit. c)). Sequestration obtained without a pending case lapses by law if the creditor does not sue, start the arbitration or apply for enforcement of its enforceable title within 20 days of the measure being granted (art. 973(3) and (4)). The application is heard urgently with the parties summoned (art. 975(1)).

The interim injunction allows provisional measures where the applicant shows an appearance of right and the case is urgent, to preserve a right that would suffer from delay, prevent imminent irreparable damage or remove obstacles to enforcement (art. 997(1)); in cases of particular urgency it can be given without summoning the parties (art. 999(2)). For a creditor, the key limit is that it cannot order measures that settle the dispute on the merits, nor measures that would make it impossible to restore the previous situation (art. 997(5)), so it is not a route to payment of the debt. It can be appealed within 5 days (art. 1000(1)) and does not bind the court deciding the merits (art. 1002(2)).

Creditors abroad and cases with a foreign element

Measures in Romania while the main case runs elsewhere

Under Brussels Ia, a creditor may apply to the Romanian courts for such provisional, including protective, measures as Romanian law provides, even if the courts of another Member State have jurisdiction over the substance (art. 35). Outside the scope of EU law, the CPC gives Romanian courts the same power in urgent cases for persons or assets located in Romania when the application is filed, even if they could not hear the merits (CPC art. 1075). A creditor suing in Germany or Austria can therefore ask a Romanian court to freeze assets located in Romania.

Which Romanian court hears the application follows the ordinary internal rules (art. 1072(1)), with the Bucharest courts as the fallback where none can be identified (art. 1072(2)). Romanian procedural conditions still apply in full, including the requirement in art. 953(1) to prove that a claim has been filed, so the foreign statement of claim and proof of filing should be filed with a certified translation by an authorised translator.

A measure ordered in another Member State without summoning the debtor does not circulate as a judgment under Brussels Ia unless it was served on the defendant before enforcement (art. 2(a)). That is one reason to apply directly in Romania, where the assets are.

The European Account Preservation Order

Regulation 655/2014 provides an order that blocks transfers and withdrawals from the debtor's bank account in a Member State up to the amount in the order (art. 1(1)), as an alternative to national measures (art. 1(2)).

Who can use it. The creditor must be domiciled in a Member State (art. 4(6)). Denmark does not take part (recital 51). Creditors based in the United Kingdom, Switzerland, the United States or Asia cannot use it; they rely on the Romanian measures above.
Cross-border only. The account must be held in a Member State other than that of the court seised or that of the creditor's domicile (art. 3(1)). A German creditor targeting a Romanian account meets this test.
Before or after judgment. It is available before proceedings on the merits are started, at any stage until judgment, or after a judgment, court settlement or authentic instrument (art. 5).
What must be shown. An urgent need for the order because there is a real risk that enforcement will otherwise be impeded or made substantially more difficult (art. 7(1)) and, before judgment, that the creditor is likely to succeed on the merits (art. 7(2)).
Security. Before judgment, the court requires security unless it considers this inappropriate in the circumstances (art. 12(1)).
Speed. Before judgment, the court decides by the end of the tenth working day after the application is lodged or completed (art. 18(1)), with jurisdiction lying with the courts competent on the substance (art. 6(1)).
Follow-up deadline. A creditor who applied before starting the main action must start it, and prove this to the court, within 30 days of the application or 14 days of the order, whichever is later; otherwise the order is revoked or terminates (art. 10).
Finding the account. A request for the authorities to trace the debtor's accounts is available, as a rule, only once the creditor holds an enforceable judgment, court settlement or authentic instrument (art. 14(1)).

Documents a creditor needs

the contract, invoices, delivery or acceptance documents and correspondence that evidence the claim in writing, with a certified translation by an authorised translator (CPC art. 150(4));
proof that the main claim has been filed (art. 953(1)), or, for an arbitration, the request for arbitration and the arbitration agreement (art. 585(2));
the lawyer's Romanian power of attorney (împuternicire avocațială) and an extract showing who represents the creditor company (art. 151);
funds available for any security the court may set, often at short notice.

What can go wrong

Security not paid in time. The attachment lapses by law (art. 956).
Main claim lost or withdrawn. The debtor can have the measure lifted (art. 957(2)).
Missed follow-up deadline. Sequestration obtained without a pending case lapses by law if no action is started within 20 days (art. 973(3) and (4)); an EU preservation order is revoked if the main action is not started in time (art. 10(2)).
Insolvency. If the debtor enters insolvency, individual measures are affected; see filing a claim as a foreign creditor in insolvency.

On fees, see the cost of litigation and enforcement in Romania; on realising frozen assets once a title exists, enforcement against bank accounts, real estate and shares.

When to take advice

Interim measures are more effective when prepared before the debtor is alerted. Take advice as soon as a debtor appears to be moving assets, and before sending a demand that may prompt it to do so. In a first e-mail, send us the contract, the invoices, the correspondence with the debtor, the debtor's name and registration number, and any clause on courts or arbitration. Fees are agreed in writing before work starts. We act for foreign creditors against Romanian debtors and describe this work on the debt collection in Romania page; write to us at office@pantilimon.ro.

This article is general information, not advice for a specific case, on EU and Romanian law as at 2 November 2026.

How to Freeze a Debtor's Assets in Romania Before Judgment