Debt recovery claim: evidence, limitation period and court fee

When this is needed

This guide is for cases where a debtor has not repaid money under an IOU, loan agree­ment, supply, ser­vices, lease or another oblig­a­tion. A debt re­cov­ery claim should answer three ques­tions: why the debt exists, exactly how much should be re­cov­ered, and why the se­lect­ed court and pro­ce­dure are ap­pro­pri­ate.

In Kyiv, a prac­ti­cal mistake often starts with choos­ing the route rather than draft­ing the claim. If the parties are in­di­vid­u­als acting outside a busi­ness context, the matter is usually civil. If the debt arose between com­pa­nies or sole pro­pri­etors in their busi­ness ac­tiv­i­ty, check com­mer­cial ju­ris­dic­tion. Choos­ing the wrong route can cost time and require the filing package to be pre­pared again.

If the claimant is a company filing a prop­er­ty claim in a com­mer­cial court, see the sep­a­rate guide to com­mer­cial claims and fees and the fee cal­cu­la­tor for that route. The civil rate for an in­di­vid­ual does not apply.

If a court order or en­force­ment pro­ceed­ing already exists for the debt, first es­tab­lish which doc­u­ment is in force. A new claim may not be needed; the next step may be can­celling the court order, ap­ply­ing to an en­force­ment officer or ad­dress­ing an account seizure.

If in­sol­ven­cy pro­ceed­ings have already been opened against the debtor, an or­di­nary claim may be the wrong route. Check how a cred­i­tor can lodge claims in bank­rupt­cy pro­ceed­ings and do not miss the special dead­line running from the of­fi­cial notice.

Applicable time limit or procedure

The general lim­i­ta­tion period under the Civil Code is three years, but that alone is not enough for a debt claim. A penalty may have a shorter period, in­stal­ments may be cal­cu­lat­ed sep­a­rate­ly, and ac­knowl­edg­ment of the debt or partial payment may change the analy­sis. Before filing, check the cal­en­dar with the lim­i­ta­tion period cal­cu­la­tor and compare the result with your doc­u­ments.

If an IOU or loan agree­ment does not set a re­pay­ment date, first es­tab­lish default under the guide to de­mand­ing re­pay­ment of a loan with no fixed term, then count the special 30 days only after doc­u­ment­ed de­liv­ery.

The Civil Pro­ce­dure Code re­quires the claim to iden­ti­fy the court and parties, state the claim value, provide a rea­soned cal­cu­la­tion, facts and ev­i­dence, in­for­ma­tion about pre-trial set­tle­ment, court costs and a list of at­tach­ments. For a debt claim, “the money was not repaid” is not enough: the court needs a chronol­o­gy and cal­cu­la­tion.

For prop­er­ty claims, the court fee is tied to the claim value and the sub­sis­tence minimum for able-bodied persons as of 1 January of the filing year. In 2026 that figure is UAH 3,328, but check the final amount and payment details before paying on the spe­cif­ic court’s website or the of­fi­cial court-fee page.

Steps to take

First, collect the doc­u­ments es­tab­lish­ing the debt. These may include a con­tract, IOU, invoice, cer­tifi­cate, con­sign­ment note, mes­sen­ger mes­sages, email or bank trans­ac­tion. Show not only that an agree­ment existed but also when the debtor had to perform.

Next, cal­cu­late the claim. Keep prin­ci­pal, 3% annual in­ter­est, in­fla­tion losses, con­trac­tu­al penalty and fines sep­a­rate. Each ad­di­tion­al amount needs a period, formula and legal basis. If the amount is in­flat­ed or un­ex­plained, the court may reject part of it or ask for clar­i­fi­ca­tion. Also plan whether to recover legal fees after judg­ment, since the pro­ce­dur­al dead­line for ev­i­dence of those costs is short.

If the dispute con­cerns a payment called earnest money, do not au­to­mat­i­cal­ly add it to prin­ci­pal. First review the sce­nario cal­cu­la­tion of the con­se­quences for earnest money and the guide to written form, advance pay­ments and re­pay­ment demands.

Then check the court. For a civil case, review venue rules under the Civil Pro­ce­dure Code, the de­fen­dant’s address and pos­si­ble al­ter­na­tives. For a busi­ness debt, check the Com­mer­cial Pro­ce­dure Code, the parties’ status and the link to busi­ness ac­tiv­i­ty. If the con­tract selects a venue, con­tains an ar­bi­tra­tion clause or names several de­fen­dants, confirm the route before paying the fee.

The final step is the filing package. Prepare the claim and at­tach­ments, ev­i­dence that copies were sent to the other par­tic­i­pants, and the fee receipt or doc­u­ments es­tab­lish­ing an ex­emp­tion. For online filing, check your elec­tron­ic account, file formats and de­liv­ery ev­i­dence.

What to check before filing

Check the weak points sep­a­rate­ly before filing. First is the lim­i­ta­tion period. If the debt is old, the de­fen­dant may argue that it expired. Be ready to es­tab­lish the start date, in­ter­rup­tions, pay­ments and cor­re­spon­dence. If the risk is high, prepare your po­si­tion in case the de­fen­dant raises expiry of the lim­i­ta­tion period.

Second is the ev­i­dence. The court needs doc­u­ments proving the oblig­a­tion and default, not as­sump­tions. If some arrange­ments were oral or made in a mes­sen­ger app, assess in advance how to submit elec­tron­ic ev­i­dence and whether an orig­i­nal or tech­ni­cal con­fir­ma­tion will be needed.

Third is en­force­ment of a future judg­ment. A claim may be legally strong but dif­fi­cult to collect in prac­tice. If there is a risk of assets being trans­ferred, mul­ti­ple debtors, older pro­ceed­ings or seizures, assess the en­force­ment strat­e­gy before filing. Once you receive the en­force­ment doc­u­ment, the dead­line cal­cu­la­tor for pre­sent­ing it for en­force­ment can help.

When to consult a lawyer

A lawyer is useful when the debt is sub­stan­tial, doc­u­ments are in­com­plete, there are partial pay­ments, a rec­on­cil­i­a­tion state­ment, a dispute about time limits, several debtors or busi­ness parties. In such cases, an error in ju­ris­dic­tion, cal­cu­la­tion or ev­i­dence can weaken the claim before the first hearing.

For Kyiv cases, advice at the prepa­ra­tion stage can help check venue, lim­i­ta­tion periods, the court fee, ev­i­dence and the prospects of en­force­ment. If the debtor is block­ing ne­go­ti­a­tions or moving assets, sep­a­rate­ly assess interim relief and the later en­force­ment route.