Spreading past maintenance debt in execution proceedings: who decides, on what conditions, and what is never spread
An accumulated maintenance debt is not an ordinary debt. It is collected with sharp tools, it is not wiped out in insolvency like other debts, and yet the law allows it to be spread into instalments. Since 2018 that power has rested with the Execution Office registrar, on cumulative conditions this page sets out. What is never spread is the current maintenance.
"Spreading is not a reduction of the debt. It is an agreement that the debt will be paid, at a pace the debtor can truly keep."
Adv. Ester Efrati · Head of the Family and Inheritance Department
What a maintenance debt is, and what makes it special
A maintenance debt arises when the paying parent does not pay on time what was awarded, in an approved agreement or a judgment. The receiving parent can collect it through the National Insurance Institute, or open a file at the Execution Office and take proceedings, attachments and restrictions.
The law treats this debt differently from a debt to a bank or a supplier. The money is intended for the children's upkeep, so collection is faster, the restrictions are sharper, and the protections available to an ordinary debtor are narrower. In insolvency proceedings too, the debt is not wiped out like other debts.
And yet the legislature recognised that a debtor left without means of subsistence pays nothing at all. Hence the spreading mechanism.
What changed in 2018
Until August 2018, a debtor seeking to spread a past maintenance debt had to apply to the court or tribunal that awarded the maintenance, a long and costly process. Amendment 55 to the Execution Law transferred the power to the Execution Office registrar, who knows the file and the debtor's situation.
The registrar may make an order for payment of past maintenance debt in instalments, at the debtor's request and even on the registrar's own initiative, but only where cumulative conditions are met. The amendment did not soften the debt. It changed the address and the procedure.
Past maintenance debt is defined in the law as a debt for maintenance awarded for a period preceding the judgment, or a debt arising from current maintenance payments not paid on time.
Execution Law, 5727-1967, section 69B1 (Amendment No. 55, in force from 15 August 2018). Checked September 2026.
The three conditions for a spreading order
The law makes the order conditional on three requirements, all of which must be met together.
- A means inquiry: the registrar has conducted a means inquiry of the debtor, and in a maintenance debt it is held only after the creditor has been summoned to it.
- Justification: the registrar is satisfied that the order is justified, having regard to the debtor's financial situation and the possible harm to the creditor.
- Compliance with current payments: where current maintenance exists, the debtor paid two consecutive monthly instalments before the application, and continued to pay them in full until the decision.
The third condition is a test of conduct: a debtor who does not pay the current maintenance does not obtain a spreading of the past. The law leaves the registrar a narrow opening to depart from it, if satisfied that the non-payment stems from exceptional circumstances, which must be recorded.
Section 69B1 of the Execution Law · section 67(b)(2) (means inquiry in a maintenance debt). Checked September 2026.
The means inquiry
The means inquiry is the heart of the application. The debtor presents income, expenses, assets and debts, and supports them with documents: pay slips, bank statements, a lease, medical certificates. The creditor may attend and ask questions.
What is examined is not only how much the debtor earns, but how much remains after a minimal subsistence, and what harm each postponement causes the creditor. An application that presents a partial or contradictory picture works against its author, because the registrar may infer from it a capacity that was not disclosed.
The application must also propose a plan: how much will be paid each month, from what, and for how long. An unrealistic spreading will be breached, and the breach will close the door to a further application.
What is not spread: current maintenance
The order applies to the past debt only. Current maintenance, the payments whose due date has not yet arrived, is not spread at the Execution Office in any circumstances. A person who cannot meet the current amount must apply to the forum that awarded it, in a claim to reduce maintenance, and that is a different proceeding.
The distinction matters for planning too: an application to spread does not freeze the current maintenance, and every month not paid in full joins the past debt and threatens the third condition.
And this too: the mechanism applies to a file at the Execution Office. A debt the National Insurance Institute collects, after paying the creditor, is handled under its own rules.
Default interest and its reduction
A maintenance debt at the Execution Office accrues default interest, and in old debts the interest may be a substantial part of the sum. The amendment gave the registrar a further tool: where a spreading order is made, the registrar may reduce the default interest that will be added to the debt during the instalment period.
The reduction is neither automatic nor retroactive to what has already accrued. It is an incentive for a debtor who keeps to the plan, and its purpose is that the debt actually shrinks rather than rolling over.
It is right to request it expressly, with reasons, and not to assume it comes with the order.
Section 69B1 of the Execution Law (reduction of default interest during the instalment period). Checked September 2026.
Maintenance debt in insolvency
Many debtors arrive at spreading after examining the other route, insolvency, and discovering that it does not solve the maintenance problem. The Insolvency and Economic Rehabilitation Law excludes an awarded maintenance debt from the ordinary discharge, and leaves the court only narrow discretion.
This means that even a debtor who obtained a discharge from all other debts leaves the process with the maintenance debt still on his shoulders. So for a person whose main debt is maintenance, spreading at the Execution Office is sometimes the only real route.
The two proceedings can also run in parallel, and then coordination is needed: what is included in the repayment plan and what remains outside it.
Insolvency and Economic Rehabilitation Law, 5778-2018, section 175 (debts to which the discharge does not apply). Checked September 2026.
Where a lawyer makes the difference
Spreading applications are usually refused not because the debt is large but because the file was not prepared: a current payment missing for one month, documents that contradict each other, an unrealistic plan, or an application filed before the conditions were met.
Preparation includes establishing exactly what is past debt and what is current, completing the two required payments, building a document file that shows the debtor's situation in full, and drafting an application that addresses the harm to the creditor in advance. At the means inquiry itself, representation determines which questions are asked and how they are answered.
The creditor also has a place in the proceeding: to attend the inquiry, to present the harm, and to ensure that the spreading approved is kept.
In summary
In summary, a past maintenance debt can be spread at the Execution Office, by order of the registrar, where three cumulative conditions are met: a means inquiry, justification weighed against the harm to the creditor, and compliance with current maintenance. The current maintenance itself is not spread, the debt is not wiped out in insolvency, and the registrar may reduce default interest for a debtor who keeps to the plan.
The proceeding rests on an accurate document file and on correct timing, and an application filed before its time closes a door instead of opening one.
Contact us to examine the state of the file and for information on the conditions ahead of you.
What people ask us about spreading a maintenance debt
Who has the power to spread a past maintenance debt?
Can current maintenance be spread as well?
What must be paid before the application is filed?
Does the creditor take part in the proceeding?
Can the interest on the debt come down?
Does insolvency wipe out a maintenance debt?
What happens if the debtor breaches the spreading?
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A short consultation meeting in which we examine what is past debt and what is current, whether the two required payments have been made, and what the file needs so that the means inquiry serves the application rather than working against it.