§ 2-1. Application for debt negotiation: where and how

This section tells you how to start a debt settlement (gjeldsordning). You submit an application for debt negotiation to the enforcement officer in the municipality where you live. You can send it electronically or on paper. The King in Council can decide that applications from several enforcement officer districts in the same police district go to one of the enforcement officers.

If you do not live in Norway, or if you have address protection in the National Population Register, you apply to the enforcement officer designated by the King in Council. Address protection is found in the Population Register Act § 10-4, which says that classified information shall be blocked in the National Population Register. For people living abroad, the section refers to the fourth paragraph of § 1-4.

The second paragraph says what the application must contain. You must give figures for income, assets, debt and living expenses (what it costs you to live), and for anything else that may be of importance. The same information must be given about your spouse or cohabiting partner. The ministry has prescribed a form that must be used. The third paragraph also requires you to sign a declaration. It allows the enforcement authorities to obtain information, including from those who would otherwise have a duty of confidentiality about you. The declaration can be made electronically.

The fourth paragraph allows a joint application. If two or more people live in the same household and are mainly liable for each other's debt, they can submit a joint application. A constructed example: two people who share a home and finances and are liable for the same loans can submit one application instead of two.

The application is the first step in Chapter 2. Once it has been submitted, the enforcement officer must guide you under § 2-2 and make sure the case is properly investigated under § 2-3. The enforcement officer can reject the application under § 2-6, for example if it is clear that the conditions in §§ 1-2 to 1-4 are not met. If the court (retten) is to decide whether negotiation is opened, the case goes there under § 2-7. The opening itself is covered in § 3-1.