Acknowledgement of debt (anerkendelse af gæld)
Also known as admission of debt, debt acknowledgement, admission
An acknowledgement is the debtor confirming that the debt exists — and it interrupts limitation, so a new period begins that same day.
- Effect
- A new period from scratch
- May arise from
- An instalment or a written admission
- Burden of proof
- Rests with the creditor
In practice
The debtor does not have to sign anything to acknowledge the debt. An instalment, an email that names the amount without objecting to it, a request for extra time — any of these can be an acknowledgement, and any of them starts the limitation period over.
That is good news when you can prove it. The burden of proof rests with the creditor, and a phone call in which the debtor promised to pay is an acknowledgement right up until the debtor denies having said it.
This is why the written form is not a formality but the whole value. Get the admission on paper — ideally in a promissory note that can also be made enforceable — and you have both a new period and a shortcut to the bailiff’s court.
Where it commonly goes wrong
- The admission is never documented. An oral acknowledgement is just as valid as a written one, and just as hard to prove.
- An instalment is booked as a payment and nothing else. The part payment is itself an acknowledgement of the whole claim. Note the date — that is where the new period starts.