When debts permanently exceed the ability to pay them, Italian law offers specific procedures for those who cannot access ordinary insolvency proceedings: consumers, professionals, small businesses, innovative start-ups, agricultural entrepreneurs. These are the over-indebtedness (sovraindebitamento) procedures, now governed by the Code of Business Crisis and Insolvency (Legislative Decree 14/2019), which replaced the earlier Law 3/2012.
Who can access them
The prerequisite is a state of over-indebtedness: an imbalance between obligations undertaken and readily realisable assets, with the inability to perform regularly. The debtor must not have already benefited from discharge in the previous five years (or more than twice) and must not have caused the situation through wilful misconduct or gross negligence.
The main procedures
Consumer debt restructuring plan
Reserved for natural persons who incurred debts for purposes unrelated to their professional activity. The debtor proposes a payment plan, possibly partial and deferred, based on their means. The plan is assessed and approved by the court without a vote of the creditors. It may also provide for the suspension of pending enforcement proceedings.
Minor composition (concordato minore)
Intended for professionals, small businesses and other non-consumers. The debtor proposes to creditors an arrangement allowing the continuation of the business or the liquidation of the assets; approval by a majority of the claims is required.
Controlled liquidation
The debtor's assets are liquidated by a liquidator appointed by the court and the proceeds distributed to creditors. At the end, an individual debtor can obtain discharge.
Discharge of the debtor without assets
The most significant innovation: a natural person with no assets or income to allocate to creditors can obtain, once only, the cancellation of their debts, with the obligation to pay creditors if significant resources arise in the following four years.
The role of the OCC
All procedures go through a crisis-composition body (Organismo di composizione della crisi, OCC), which appoints a manager tasked with verifying the situation, drafting the report for the court and assisting the debtor. The quality of the preparation — complete documentation, honest reconstruction of the causes, sustainable plan — decisively affects the outcome.
The right procedure depends on the real situation: first analyse, then choose.
Before the procedure
An insolvency procedure is not always necessary. Often an overall analysis of the position makes it possible to negotiate direct agreements with creditors — settlements, repayment plans — that are faster and less burdensome. Advisory serves to assess both routes with data in hand and, if necessary, to refer you to the competent OCC and qualified professionals.
