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The national order for payment procedure applies to the following claims:
Under the order for payment procedure provided for by national law, in the cases referred to above and where the claim is uncontested, the creditor can obtain an enforceable order (título executivo) without having to bring a declaratory action.
The payment order procedure is established by Decree-Law 269/98 and regulated by Chapter II of the annex to that law. Article 10 refers to the model payment order application approved by Ministerial Implementing Order No 21 of 28 January 2020.
For claims arising from contracts, the maximum amount is EUR 15 000.
For claims arising from commercial transactions, there is no upper limit.
Use of the procedure is optional.
The legal rules on the order for payment procedure do not exclude cases where the debtor lives outside Portugal.
In Portugal the competent body is the National Payment Orders Office (Balcão Nacional de Injunções), a single registry located in Porto. The contact details are available here.
The creditor may choose to lodge the payment order application with either the National Payment Order Office, the registry of court of the place of performance of the obligation, or the registry of the court of the debtor’s domicile, which will subsequently send it to the National Payment Order Office (Article 8(1) of the annex to Decree-Law 269/98).
Users can consult the payment order procedure and access the enforcement order electronically on the Citius Portal.
Pursuant to Article 10 of the Annex to Decree-Law No 269/98, for the purposes of the order for payment procedure the applicant must:
The rules regarding submitting and delivering the application for the order are set out in Article 5 of Ministerial Implementing Order (Portaria) No 220-A/2008 in conjunction with Article 8 of the Annex to Decree-Law 269/98. The above provide that:
The mandatory application form for an order for payment as provided for by Ministerial Implementing Order No 21 of 18 January 2020 can be downloaded here.
The court registries competent to receive the paper application for a payment order can make the standard form available to citizens on request.
The electronic form is available to lawyers and solicitors via the e-mail address of the Citius Portal.
It is not necessary to be represented by a barrister in this procedure, but claimants can appoint a legal representative if they so wish (Article 10(5) of the annex to Decree-Law 269/98).
Article 10(2)(d) of Decree-Law 269/98 requires claimants to set out succinctly the facts underlying their claim.
No.
Evidence must be presented only when an objection is lodged, in which case the order for payment is dealt with as a special or ordinary declaratory action in accordance with the cases provided for in Article 3 of Decree-Law 269/98 and Article 10(2) to (4) of Decree-Law 62/2013 respectively.
The application for an order for payment may be rejected on the grounds set out in Article 11 of Decree-Law 269/98, if:
An appeal against a decision to reject an application may be lodged with the judge or, where the court has more than one judge, with the duty judge (Article 11(2) of the annex to Decree-Law No 269/98).
The time limit for opposing the order for payment is 15 days (Article 12(1) of the annex to Decree-Law 269/98).
If the defendant challenges the order, it is not given enforceable effect.
The case is then transferred back to the ordinary cases, taking the form of a special or ordinary declaratory action in accordance with the cases provided for in Article 3 of the annex to Decree‑Law No 269/98 and Article 10(2) to (4) of Decree-Law No 62/2013 respectively.
If, after being duly notified in accordance with Articles 12 and 13 of the annex to Decree-Law 269/98, the defendant does not submit a statement of opposition, the registrar attaches the following words to the application for an order for payment: ‘This document has enforceable effect’ (Este documento tem força executiva) (Article 14(1) of the annex to Decree-Law 269/98).
The order then constitutes an enforcement order.
Once the enforcement clause has been appended, the registrar makes the order available to the applicant, preferably by electronic means (Article 14(5) of the annex to Decree-Law 269/98).
A complaint against refusal of enforceability can be brought before the court. Inclusion of the enforcement clause can be rejected if the application does not match the amount or purpose of the procedure (Article 14(3) and (4) of the annex to Decree-Law 269/98).
Related Links:
Ministerial Implementing Order 220-A/2008
Ministerial Implementing Order 21/2020
Notice:
The EJN-Civil Contact Point, the courts or other entities and authorities are not bound by the information contained in this factsheet, which may be subject to changes in interpretation by the case law. Although the factsheets are updated on a regular basis, it is still necessary to read the legislation in force.
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