§ 4-12. How a voluntary debt settlement is adopted

This section determines when a proposal for a voluntary debt settlement (frivillig gjeldsordning) becomes binding on everyone. The enforcement officer sends the proposal to all known creditors (those who are owed money) who are affected, and to those who are jointly and severally liable for the same debt together with the debtor. The creditors should be given three weeks to take a position. Anyone who does not respond is deemed to have said yes. The exception is fines: a creditor with a claim for a fine must say yes themselves.

A no must have a reason. A creditor cannot simply reject the proposal, and anyone who says no must state why.

Public creditors have a separate rule. The public sector can accept the proposal for claims that are not fines, both when the creditor is an authority and when it is a collector of such claims. This applies even if another act, regulations or an earlier decision would otherwise stand in the way. The decision is not regarded as an individual decision under the Public Administration Act (an administrative decision that can be appealed).

The proposal is adopted when all affected creditors have accepted it, and silence from a notified creditor counts as consent. Example: All the creditors except one answer yes, and the last one does not respond within the deadline. If the last one does not have a claim for a fine, it is deemed to have accepted, and the proposal is adopted. If the last one had had a claim for a fine, it would have had to say yes itself.

This section goes together with § 4-11, which allows the enforcement officer to call a meeting between the debtor and the creditors when this is found necessary. The funds set aside for disputed claims and personal guarantees (kausjon) are dealt with in § 4-9 and § 4-10. The rules here also apply when a debt settlement is to be changed later, since § 6-1 on changing a debt settlement refers here.