Confidentiality

Under certain circumstances you can be granted confidentiality about a debt that is being collected by the Enforcement Authority. This can also apply to other cases handled by us, such as eviction.

Confidentiality means that the information is no longer public and that we will not disclose it. It also means that the credit reference agencies have to block the record of non-payment that was generated when the debt was registered for recovery with us.

When do you get a record for non-payment?

Some information held by credit reference agencies generate a record of non-payment. We share information about debts with credit reference agencies as soon as the information has been registered by us.

We will not disclose debt information about private individuals who are not traders, provided the case in question is public, i e concerns debts for unpaid taxes, fines, maintenance support or similar, until the payment term (the notice period) has expired and the debt remains unpaid. This means that private individuals have two weeks in which to pay before a tax debt, for example, leads to a record of non-payment.

Requirements for a debt to be made confidential

The following conditions have to be met in order for confidentiality to apply for the information about a debt:

• You have had no debt registered over the past two years.
• You have paid the debt, including interest, any arrears and basic fees, or else the case has been withdrawn by the creditor.
• You do not take on any new debt in the two years following the labelling of a debt as confidential.

Only debts that have been handled by the Enforcement Authority for collection can be made confidential. The rules for confidentiality were changed on 1 December 2018. The changes mean that if you have paid a debt for e g unpaid taxes, maintenance support or fines (debts to public entities) within the notice period, information about that debt will always be confidential. This change only applies to natural persons, i e private individuals who are not traders, and only for debts to the state, municipality or county council that were registered by the Enforcement Authority after 1 December 2018.

The confidentiality rules apply even if you take on other debts within the following two years. If you paid your debt after the notice period and you take on a new debt, the first debt loses its confidentiality only if you don’t pay the new debt within the notice period.

You cannot apply for confidentiality. A debt will be automatically labelled as confidential in our register if the above requirements are met. If a debt is labelled as confidential, information about it must be blocked at credit reference agencies.

Information that can never be made confidential

There is also information held by the Enforcement Authority that cannot be made confidential. This applies for debts to private individuals and businesses. Such debts are established by the Enforcement Authority through a decision known as a ruling. A ruling can never be made confidential.

Our decisions, such as a report on our investigation of your assets, or a decision on attachment of salary, cannot be made confidential either. You can avoid such decisions by promptly paying your debt, so that we don’t need to carry out an investigation.

How do you know if you receive a record of non-payment?

Note that there can be many different reasons why a record of non-payment is registered. If you suspect that you have received a record of non-payment it is therefore best to check with a credit reference agency. The Swedish Data Protection Authority maintains a current list of credit reference agencies.