A resident of Ceuta manages to cancel his debt of more than €200,000 through the Second Chance Law. In this way, the exoneration subject to the Second Chance Law was achieved after the last reform. The procedure was resolved in less than 60 days, a record time for Spanish justice.
Court number 5 of Ceuta has taken approximately a month and a half to cancel the debt by granting the Unsatisfied Liability Exemption Benefit (BEPI), putting an end to an unsustainable situation for the applicant and his family. The debtor, a civil servant by profession, together with his unemployed wife and his two minor children, faced the loss of the family home, which could be avoided thanks to the application of the Second Chance Law. With the entry into force of the Bankruptcy Law reform in September 2022, the process is faster and more accessible.
The Second Chance Law, approved in 2015, seeks to offer a second chance to those people who are unable to pay their debts due to being insolvent. By invoking the law, debtors can request a reorganization of their debts, negotiate with their creditors, avoid embargoes and obtain forms of payment according to their circumstances. The law includes means of protection for debtors, such as limiting the action of creditors and preventing their harassment. At the same time, the law becomes a key tool against delinquency, allowing creditors to collect, at least partially, debts that could not have been collected otherwise.
There are more and more people who are granted the Unsatisfied Liability Exemption Benefit (BEPI) and cancel their debt through the Second Chance Law, with very different conditions. Just a few months ago, a pensioner from Motril managed to get the court to forgive 100% of the debt acquired by applying for various microcredits and amounting to €45,000, avoiding the seizure of his income and being able to keep his vehicle. This same year, a Sevillian civil servant managed to cancel more than €180,000 and kept the house owned by him. In short, the circumstances that determine insolvency and the possibility of canceling the debt are very different, which is why it is necessary to know the regulations and the details of each situation in order to benefit from the law.