Debtor search
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The reason debtors disappear

Debtors who do not repay a private loan, do not settle an invoice or even commit fraud usually do so intentionally and subsequently hiding is the preferred method of evading the payment obligation and legal consequences.

The debtors often manage to shake off their creditors. The reason for this lies in the legal and bureaucratic hurdles of democratic states, which make sense from the point of view of the honest citizen, but are shamelessly exploited by some debtors.

What you can do to find your debtor

Even if the telephone number is not assigned, the addressee has moved away and the usual authorities are unable to provide you with any information at first, there are various ways to take action on your own. The following options and procedures can help you if you do not want to immediately hire a private investigator, a debt collection agency or a bailiff. By way of example, we will limit ourselves to the situation in Germany and Switzerland. For international searches, we recommend that you contact us or other specialists directly, as not only language skills, but also the respective legal and official circumstances must be taken into account.

1. Try an internet search

Nowadays, it is almost impossible to cut all connections. It is no longer possible for even professional debtors to disappear completely. The name, place of residence or bank details alone can lead to the goal.

Debtors still need an address, a telephone number or bank details. A confirmed residential address is essential for an account alone. Family and friends, acquaintances as well as restaurant and bar visits are also clues that can be helpful online.

Don’t be afraid to use prevention and debtor reporting portals. For example, our portal: schuldner-finden.com has been used successfully for years.

2. Own inquiry at the residents’ registration office

This approach makes sense if you know an old address. You may be able to find out the address at which you moved away from. However, if you want to hide, you will probably not give it, give it incorrectly or give it in general terms (“Dubai”). To obtain the information, you will need proof of identity (court order, certificate of loss, loan agreement, etc.). The fees for such requests are low.

If you are a foreigner living in Switzerland, you can submit a request to the State Secretariat for Migration, where all foreigners living in Switzerland are registered. Costs CHF 40.

3. The debtor register (Germany)

The first point of contact can be the joint enforcement portal of the federal states. A central point of contact with data from the debtor directories in accordance with Sections 882b et seq. ZPO.

This platform meets the requirements of the Act on the Reform of Factual Clarification in Enforcement, which came into force on January 1, 2013. The enforcement portal is an important resource for you as a creditor to obtain information about debtors and to be able to carry out more effective enforcement measures.

Features of the portal

• It contains nationwide debtor directories.
• It provides asset information on debtors.
• It can be accessed electronically at any time by bailiffs, authorities and government agencies.
• It can also be viewed by persons with a legitimate interest.

The aim of the portal is to modernize compulsory enforcement and to make it easier for creditors like you to enforce enforceable claims by gaining information.

4. Extract from the debt collection register (Switzerland) – usually not useful

An analogous point of contact in Switzerland would be the debt collection register extract. However, the cat bites the tail here because this extract requires knowledge of the place of registration. On the other hand, it can be a starting point for professional investigators; more on this below.

5. Determination of residence by bailiff (Germany)

you arrange for the bailiff to determine your whereabouts in accordance with Section 755 ZPO

The requirements for this are

• The enforcement order must have been issued by you.
• The order could not be carried out because the debtor could not be located.
• The competent bailiff was then expressly instructed to find the address.

If these 3 factors are met, your bailiff will start the address search. To do this, he can enquire at the residents’ registration office. As it is highly likely that your debtor has not re-registered, additional inquiries can be made at the foreign register, the Federal Motor Transport Authority or the statutory pension insurance.

In our experience, these steps are unsuccessful in the vast majority of cases and have resulted in nothing but costs.

6. Request an extract from the commercial register (B2B)

In a commercial environment, it is advisable to request an extract from the commercial register from the local court or the relevant online platform. In the case of professional debtors, there are usually false letterbox companies, but these must be registered somewhere.

The commercial register offers scope for tracing the private address of the founder.

7. Carry out a business inquiry (B2B)

In the B2B sector, it can also be helpful to submit a business inquiry. These are often commercial customers whose private address is not available. A business inquiry at the trade office can provide information about a debtor’s private address.

This inquiry can help if the commercial register does not yield any results, as can often be the case with sole proprietorships and small businesses.

Alternatives to own research or address determination by the bailiff

We recommend that you contact specialists in dealing with debtors directly. Our clients benefit from excellent private detectives, a broad worldwide network of contacts and a wealth of experience from countless debtors we have already successfully traced.

In contrast to conventional detective agencies, we combine private investigations and debt collection in one. This means that you can give us an investigation mandate, have the debtor traced and then switch to a debt collection mandate.

This enables us to confront the debtor(s) found directly on site and collect your money straight away. Our methods are within the legal framework and our direct collection approach often makes us more efficient than conventional debt collection agencies.

This applies both to cases in the DACH region and to international debt collection cases.

Find and enforce debtors now

How address tracing and debtor search work for professionals

Auch im Zuge direkter Inkassoaufträge für unsere Mandate starten wir sehr oft mit der Schuldnersuche. Unser Erfolgsrezept beruht auf der persönlichen Begegnung mit den Schuldnern.

Whether in Switzerland, Germany or Austria, across Europe or internationally to far-flung continents such as the USA. Our network of freelancers and directly employed teams enables us to successfully collect debts worldwide and track down the culprits.

Our approach to debtor identification

When investigating debtors, we use various methods to determine current addresses and whereabouts. First of all, we use all the methods that are also available to you as a private individual, thus saving you some time. Our procedure then includes the following methods, among others:

• On-site inspections and observations at the old residence or place of stay or at addresses of parents, children, ex-partners, etc.
• If we have addresses of relatives, friends, or business partners of the debtor, we use more targeted measures such as creating a fake identity to obtain information through apparent refunds or making direct inquiries with known contacts under false pretenses.
• If a local lead such as a workplace is available, we conduct follow-up observations to determine the private residence. In some cases, we also use technical surveillance methods to gather further clues, with the exact methods remaining confidential.
• Specialized databases and internet searches, which often provide valuable information. For example, online orders might lead to a feedback on the delivery address, which we then verify on-site. Alternatively, we may find the address through portals like “eSchKG” (electronic portal of debt collection offices in Switzerland).
• Additional technical tools and internet tracking methods that we do not detail here.
• Search requests on specialized platforms.

Since 2014, we have been able to locate the debtors we were searching for in almost all cases using these methods. Only in 4 cases have we been unsuccessful so far.

Examples

• A debtor from Switzerland was “as if vanished off the face of the earth.” There were vague indications that she might have moved to Germany. We set an alert on her name on a Swiss database platform. After about a year, we automatically received an address notification from Switzerland; she had returned!
• A debtor was not traceable at any of the addresses we knew. However, we had an email address. Through this, we managed to invite him for a meeting at our office, which wasn’t difficult because he thought he could keep his whereabouts secret. However, a surveillance team followed him by foot and car, leading us to his residence. Although he was not registered there, he was subsequently accessible to us. When we later stood at his front door, he was very surprised.
• There were repeated hints and traces of a debtor on the internet. However, he seemed unlocatable. We published a search request online. This yielded several informant tips, allowing us to find his work and residence location. We were able to deliver a debt collection notice to him there. He was not registered anywhere.
• We only knew a town in the Abruzzo region, Italy, where a debtor supposedly bought a property. It was a large mountainous valley with numerous small villages. We traveled there and contacted the municipal authorities and local police. Thanks to good language skills, relationship building, and patience, we found out which property it was. Although we did not meet the debtor there (he was mostly traveling), we left our documents and an unmistakable letter. Apparently, the fact that we had tracked him down was so concerning that he voluntarily contacted us, likely out of fear that we might reveal his “secret” location.