New debtor's objections due to debt transfer: theory and practice

The study discusses the theoretical and practical issues of protecting a new debtor in a case of debt transfer. The paper analyzes various approaches to defining an objection and its relationship with the term ‘claim’, types of objections, reveals the problem of the mandatory nature of Article 392 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. It is proposed to add to civil law an additional obligation for a former debtor to transfer documents and report information that can be used by a new debtor in order to accomplish objections against a creditor’s claim. Novels of the civil legislation and new approaches of supervisory judicial practice are analyzed. The author argues for the validity of imposing an explicit prohibition on a new debtor to set-off a counterclaim that belongs to a former debtor. The differentiation of objections that belong to a new debtor is proposed because of its practical importance due to the fact that several objections must be considered by the court ex officio while others should be exclusively reviewed on the basis of the application of a litigant. The author substantiates an approach that focuses on the protection of a new debtor’s legal status, denying the possibility of limiting his objections against creditor’s right to claim, which is based on an agreement.