§ 4-5. What assets you can keep in a debt settlement
Machine-translated from Norwegian. The Norwegian text is the one that applies. Read the original in Norwegian.Norsk English العربية Polski Українська
In brief
- You can keep reasonable personal items, household contents and equipment for work or education, up to the National Insurance basic amount (folketrygdens grunnbeløp) in total.
- Items of special personal value and aids needed because of illness or disability can be kept beyond this limit.
- Assets belonging to your spouse (ektefelle) or children you support are taken into account in the assessment.
- Whatever you are not allowed to keep is sold under § 4-6.
The text of the law (unofficial translation)
§ 4-5. The debtor's right to keep personal belongings, means of transport, etc.
- clothes and other items for the personal use of the debtor or the debtor's household (husstand),
- household contents, equipment and similar movable property that the debtor needs in his or her home,
- tools, means of transport and similar aids that the debtor or any member of the debtor's household needs for his or her occupation or education or for other welfare reasons, but not beyond a total value equal to the National Insurance basic amount. The amount limit may be departed from if the debtor is engaged in business and no creditor (fordringshaver) objects.
What does this mean?
This section says which assets you can keep when you get a debt settlement (gjeldsordning), instead of everything being sold for the benefit of the creditors (kreditorene) (the people you owe money to). The main rule covers items for personal use, household contents and aids for work, education or welfare. The condition is that it is reasonable for you to keep them. The total value cannot exceed the National Insurance basic amount. If you run a business, the limit can be set aside if no creditor objects.
In practice, there are three additional rules that make the section more lenient than the main rule. You can keep items of special personal value to you or your family even if they go beyond the limit, as long as it would be clearly unreasonable to take them. If someone in the household is ill or disabled, reasonable account must be taken of this, and in special cases work tools, means of transport and similar aids can be kept regardless of their value. When assessing what else you own, assets belonging to your spouse or children you support are also included, if you or the household can use the items. Example: a debtor needs a car to get to work, and someone in the household is disabled.
The law also refers to the Creditors Recovery Act, which protects, among other things, grants and contributions for specific purposes, and money needed for living costs (underhold) for a short time until the next income. The Creditors Recovery Act's rules on extended access to attachment (utlegg) also apply, to the extent that such claims receive better coverage under § 4-8. This includes compensation (erstatning) for damage caused intentionally, claims for living costs, and tax.
Whatever you are not allowed to keep under this section or § 4-4 must be sold so that the creditors get the best possible coverage, see § 4-6. How the value of what you keep is determined is set out in § 4-7. Your income has its own rules in § 4-3, while § 4-5 deals with assets. The money from sales is distributed under § 4-8.
- § 2-4Exemption from seizure for grants and public contributions
- § 2-5Exemption from seizure for money for living costs
- § 2-6Extended access to attachment in special cases
- § 4-8Distribution between the creditors in a debt settlement
- § 4-4The duty to sell your home in a debt settlement