Can we take in a young person with debts?

Questioner

We know a 20-year-old boy who was homeless and had serious debts. We took him in, without a contract, as a guest. We convinced him to enter debt counselling. For that, he had to be registered at our address. Now he gets a letter from a bailiff. Are we at risk of our belongings being taken? How do we prevent that? The creditor is DUO.

Lawyer

You cannot avoid a bailiff coming to your house before the application of the restructuring has been pronounced to take possession of movable property to sell, but you can raise a defense objection by stating that only certain movable property belongs to the debtor and not to you. To this end, it is useful to make a list of the boy's belongings and to keep it in a separate locked room. Furthermore, your assets are yours and those of the boy are his. As regards the maintenance of bank accounts, you must put in writing that there is only a user agreement and that for a certain space (designation) and right to shared use of sanitary facilities and kitchen and furthermore there is no consideration for this: then seizure of bank accounts is also pointless.