The first instance (commercial) court number 6 of Lleida has forgiven a debt of 129,186.53 euros to a resident of the city who, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, lost 90% of the clients of his business consultancy and He was unable to pay the business policies and the ICO credit that he had requested to save his company.
The judge has applied the second chance law to the consultant, as explained by the law firm that handled the case, Bergadà Asociados.
According to the firm, its client’s insolvency “was due to a series of factors that accumulated throughout his professional career and were significantly aggravated by the coronavirus pandemic and the significant loss of his client portfolio.”
The man began his business career in April 2005 and for 16 years, the man operated through his own company, of which he was the sole partner and director. The company became his main source of income and customer base.
Most of its clients, small and medium-sized companies, were acquired or merged by large business groups during the pandemic. These groups already had their own consulting teams, which resulted in a loss of 90% of their client portfolio and, consequently, of their regular income.
He decided to close the company and deregister the company in 2021. “At that time, I met with the bank to find a solution, but they told me that the ICO policy that I had requested ended in October 2023 and that I should wait until then to see what would happen, although I told him that I wanted to settle the debt,” the man remembers.
The man, who had a mortgage, tried to unify the credits. According to the law firm, there came a point where it was impossible to continue paying them, since the policies requested for the company had been transformed into personal loans that acquired a short repayment period, making it impossible for it to assume the installments. . He had to pay the mortgage payments and basic support for his family. “They demanded a fee of 500 euros per month that I could not afford. I wanted to pay, but a smaller amount, but they did not heed my request,” he points out.
After the company closed, in May 2021 he accepted a management job in a private company, a position that had a defined term and ended in March 2023, leaving him unemployed again and having to face economic challenges.
“This situation had a serious impact on his state of health and, to this day, he is still undergoing psychological treatment,” says the lawyer who handled the case, founding partner of Bergadà Asociados, Marta Bergadà.
The man who is currently working as a consultant again learned about the second chance law in the press.