Questionnaire on the Maintenance Directive (Article 70) - Slovakia
1.
Is Slovakia bound by the 2007 Hague Protocol?
2.
If Slovakia is not bound by the 2007 Hague Protocol, which law will the
courts of Slovakia apply according to the Maintenance Regulation? Please
describe briefly your corresponding private international law rules.
3.
Does the petitioner have to pay fees to bring a case to court? Please
describe briefly your rules on legal aid following the structure of Chapter V of
the Maintenance Regulation.
4.
Please describe briefly any limitations on enforcement, in particular
debtor protection rules and limitation or prescription periods in your
enforcement system.
5.
Did Slovakia adopt any measures in order to ensure the functioning of
the activities described in Article 51? If yes, to what extent?
1. The Slovak Republic is bound by the Hague Protocol of 23 November 2007 on
the law applicable to maintenance obligations.
2. –
3. In cross-border disputes relating to maintenance obligations the provision of
legal aid is subject to Article 44(3) of Council Regulation (EC) No 4/2009. The
Central Authority for Slovakia is the Centre for International Legal Protection of
Children and Youth. It provides its services free of charge, making it possible
for the parties to ordinary proceedings determining or altering maintenance
obligations in Slovakia to conduct these proceedings without needing legal
aid.
Where the proceedings cannot be conducted without legal aid, it is provided
free of charge for persons under the age of 21 in accordance with Article 46 of
the Regulation. This legal aid is granted by the Legal Aid Centre in accordance
with Act No 327/2005 governing the provision of legal aid to persons in
financial need (the Legal Aid Act), as amended.
Where Article 46 of the Regulation does not apply, legal aid is granted free of
charge under the Legal Aid Act to applicants who meet the criteria laid down
therein.
Applicants who do not meet the criteria have to pay the court fees in
accordance with Act No 71/1992 governing court fees and fees for extracts
from the criminal register. Proceedings in cases involving the reciprocal
maintenance obligation between parents and children are exempt from the
court fees laid down in this Act. Applicants in proceedings where maintenance
is to be determined or increased are also personally exempted from paying the
court fees. In addition, the parties to the proceedings pay the trial costs
incurred by themselves and those of their representatives. Shared costs are
paid by the parties in proportion to their involvement in the case and the
proceedings. In the case of maintenance for an adult, the court awards the
successful applicant the costs necessary for the proper enforcement or
protection of the right against the losing party.
4. Under Act No 233/1995 on bailiffs and enforcement activities (the Enforcement
Code), where enforcement is to be carried out on the basis of an enforcement
order imposing an obligation to pay a sum of money it may take the form of:

deductions from a salary or other income;

a garnishee order (in respect of a bank account or other cash
receivables);

sale of movable property;

sale of stocks;

sale of immovable property;

sale of a business;

disqualification from driving.
Deductions from a salary may be made only up to the amount awarded in the
judgment and the associated costs. The deductions are made from the liable party’s
net salary, which means the salary after deduction of advance tax or income tax,
health insurance and social insurance premiums, old age pension contributions and
social security contributions. Net salary includes net remuneration from a secondary
activity, recruitment incentives and the value of payments in kind, but does not
include child allowances and amounts granted to cover work-related outlay,
particularly in the case of business trips.
Section 1 of Slovak Government Regulation No 268/2006 on the size of salary
deductions under an enforcement judgment specifies the protected earnings amount
that may not be deducted from the salary of the person liable for payment. The
amount is 60% of the minimum subsistence income for an adult applicable in the
month for which the deductions are being made. In the case of maintenance for a
minor, the protected earnings that may not be deducted are 70% of the basic amount
laid down in the Slovak Government Regulation. The net salary remaining after the
deduction of the protected earnings is rounded down in eurocents to an amount
divisible by three and only one third of this remaining amount may be deducted to
recover the entitled party’s claim. In the case of priority claims, which includes
maintenance claims, two-thirds may be deducted.
In the case of enforcement through deductions from other income, where the
deductions are to be made from the pension of a person required to pay for care
received in a welfare institution, the amount required to pay for that care and the
statutory remainder after paying for it are not subject to enforcement.
Where the money is to be taken directly from a bank account, the first €99.58 on the
account are exempt from enforcement, as are any funds explicitly declared by the
person liable as being intended for the payment of the salaries of their staff for the
payment period closest to the date on which the bank was instructed to levy
enforcement through a garnishee order. If the person liable has more than one
account, the exemption from enforcement applies to the first €99.58 on only one of
them. Where the person liable has their salary or other income paid into a bank
account, certain amounts of the monthly salary or other income are legally protected
from garnishment as of the date on which the bank is notified.
Enforcement action may not be taken on the allowance for the birth of a child and the
burial allowance unless the claim is being made for the provision of the service which
these allowances are intended to cover. The exemption from enforcement also
applies to the minimum subsistence allowance and benefits associated with it
granted under the Act governing assistance to people in need, to social assistance
benefits, the financial contribution to compensate for the social consequences of a
serious health condition, the care allowance granted under Act No 195/1998 and to
state welfare benefits, except where specific rules provide otherwise.
In the case of enforcement through the sale of movable assets, certain items are
subject to special rules prohibiting their sale or exempting them from enforcement.
Enforcement action may not be taken in respect of items that the person liable
absolutely cannot do without in order to meet their own material needs and those of
their family or in order to do their job or carry out their business activity, or other items
whose sale would be unethical.
Exemption from enforcement applies to:
(a) ordinary items of clothing, linen and footwear;
(b) essential household items, such as the liable party's bed and the beds of their
family members, a table, a chair for each family member, a fridge, a cooker, a stove,
a heater, fuel, a washing machine, duvets and bedclothes, basic kitchen equipment
and a radio;
(c) pets, with the exception of those kept for business purposes;
(d) items used by the liable party for doing their job or for business purposes up to a
value of €331.94;
(e) medical requisites and other items needed because of an illness or physical
condition;
(f) items for which the liable party has been granted welfare benefits or cash
contributions to make up for the social consequences of a serious health condition;
(g) engagement rings and wedding rings;
(h) cash up to € 99.58;
(i) study material and toys.
Enforcement also does not apply to the assets of people working on the land, if
subjecting these assets to enforcement would jeopardise the proper cultivation of the
agricultural land or the uninterrupted operation of crop or livestock production in
accordance with the relevant legislation, and breeding animals, such as milk cows,
high-yield heifers, breeding bulls, breeding sows, breeding boars, ewes and breeding
rams. Shares of assets in a pension fund are also exempt from enforcement.
Enforcement action may not be taken against a piece of real estate if the party liable
is subject to an enforceable provisional measure preventing them from transferring
the rights to the property under proceedings to establish ownership in accordance
with the Code of Civil Procedure.
In the case of enforcement through the sale of a business, enforcement action may
not be taken in respect of the business name alone; the same applies in the case of
enforcement in respect of part of a business.
Under Section 77 of Act No 36/2005 on the family and amending other acts, the right
to maintenance is not time-limited. However, it may be granted only from the date on
which the legal proceedings are brought. Where warranted by special considerations,
maintenance for a minor may be granted up to three years retroactively from the date
on which the legal proceedings were initiated. Periods of limitation apply to the
various recurring payments.
The limitation periods are laid down in Section 101 of Act No 40/1964 (the Civil Code)
as follows:
(1) Where the entitlement was granted by a final decision of a court or other body, it
shall lapse ten years from the date on which it was meant to be complied with. Where
the entitlement was acknowledged by the debtor in writing as regards the grounds
and the amount involved, it shall lapse ten years from the date on which
acknowledgement was given; if the acknowledgement specified a compliance
deadline, the limitation period shall run from the expiry of that deadline.
(2) The same limitation period applies to the individual payments specified in the
decision or the acknowledgement of the entitlement; the limitation period for the
individual payments runs from the date on which they fall due. Where the whole debt
becomes due as a result of failure to meet one of the payments, the ten-year period
of limitation shall run from the due date of the payment not made.
(3) The period of limitation for interest and recurring payments shall be three years;
however, in the case of entitlements covered by a final judgment or acknowledged in
writing, this limitation period shall apply only to interest and recurring payments that
have fallen due after the judgment became final or after the acknowledgement.
5. The Central Authority within the meaning of Article 49(1) of Council Regulation
(EC) No 4/2009 is the Centre for International Legal Protection of Children and
Youth, which was set up on 1 February 1993. As the Centre had already been
operating as the transmitting authority and receiving authority for recovering
maintenance under international agreements (in particular, the Convention on
the Recovery Abroad of Maintenance of 20 June 1956) prior to Council
Regulation (EC) No 4/2009, there was no need for special measures to be
taken for the central authority tasks laid down in Article 51 of that Regulation.
When the Regulation took effect on 18 June 2011, the Centre only needed to
make some minor organisational changes concerning personnel.