Asset investigation: know where to seize before you strike

Written by Guillaume Pouillier, CNAPS-licensed private detective, licence no. AGD 095-2024-03-06-20190240581 · Last updated: July 15, 2026

The asset investigation is the natural extension of the solvency check: where the latter answers “can he pay?”, the former answers “where to seize, and in what order?”. Lawyers, enforcement officers and creditors use it at the two decisive moments of litigation: before, to guarantee the claim through security; after, to turn the title into actual payment. Here is how we proceed, what the report contains, and what it costs, priced per identified asset, at a published rate.

What is an asset investigation for, before any judgment?

To secure the claim while the trial runs its course: protective seizure and judicial security (art. L511-1 of the French Code of Civil Enforcement Procedures) require designating specific assets. The investigation identifies them, visible holdings, real estate, businesses, vehicles, before the opponent makes them disappear.

Judicial time is long, and a forewarned opponent uses it: real estate transferred to a relative, the business sold, the car “disposed of”. A protective-measures application filed early, resting on a precise inventory, freezes the situation: the enforcement judge authorises protective seizure when the claim appears founded and its recovery threatened, two conditions our report helps establish.

It is precision work: every designated asset must be identified beyond ambiguity (address, visible references, indications of ownership) for the enforcement officer’s act to bite. A vague inventory produces vague measures, and vague measures are the ones opposing counsel gets discharged first, at your cost. Precision at the investigation stage is what economy looks like at the enforcement stage.

And after judgment: how do you turn the title into payment?

The enforceable title opens the enforcement toolbox, but you still need to know where to point it. Our inventory directs the enforcement officer: attachment where actual business is observed, property seizure where a building appears, targeted seizure and sale of what really exists.

The enforcement officer holding a title has powerful prerogatives, including querying the FICOBA register for bank accounts. What the databases do not give him is the real: the “penniless” debtor running a shop in a third party’s name, the valuable vehicle parked every night at the same address, the rental property whose rents land elsewhere. We document that invisible share, and your enforcement stops being a lottery.

To find the debtor himself before hunting his assets, see debtor tracing, the two assignments frequently combine.

What exactly do we inventory?

Apparent real estate (homes, rental properties, business premises), vehicles and valuable movables, corporate structures and going concerns, actual economic activity, apparent income, and the recent transfers that sketch an organised insolvency.

Every asset gets its own sheet: description, location, source of the finding, degree of certainty. Your counsel knows at a glance what is actionable.

How do we detect organised insolvency?

Through chronology: assets changing hands as litigation approaches, a business carried on under a structure in a relative’s name, a lifestyle unrelated to declared resources. Fraudulently organising one’s insolvency is a criminal offence in France (art. 314-7 of the Criminal Code), provided it is documented.

The pattern recurs: from the first formal notice, the shrewd debtor “grows poor”. The house goes to the spouse, the car to the son, the business to a new company. Taken in isolation, each act can be defended; laid out in chronology against the steps of the procedure, they sketch the intent. Our report rebuilds that timeline, dates of the deeds, dates of the demands, and hands your lawyer the material for a clawback action (art. 1341-2 of the Civil Code) or a criminal complaint.

Open sources are decisive here: sale listings, social posts, online trade under another name.

One point of vigilance: the clawback action is time-barred and, for deeds made for value, requires showing that the third-party acquirer knew of the fraud. The earlier the chronology is documented, the simpler the demonstration, one more reason not to wait for enforcement to fail before investigating. In our experience, the files that end badly are almost always the ones where the estate was mapped last instead of first.

Within which legal framework does the investigation operate?

CNAPS licence, documented legitimate interest (securing or enforcing a claim), exclusively lawful sources: registers and publications, open sources, observation in public space. No access to reserved banking, tax or land files, and no need for it to be effective.

Proportionality guides every file: one does not inventory an individual’s estate over a modest debt the way one prepares enforcement of a heavy judgment. The mandate fixes the scope, the report cites its sources, the condition of admissibility before the enforcement judge, and raw data is destroyed at the agreed term, in line with the GDPR.

How does the assignment unfold, and how long does it take?

Written scoping within 24 hours, a documentary phase (one to two weeks), targeted field verification, then the final report with one sheet per asset. Allow two to five weeks depending on the estate’s spread and the debtor’s sophistication, deadline fixed in advance, systematic checkpoint.

1. Scoping. The claim, any title, the debtor’s history, assets already known: we start from your file, not from zero.

2. Documentary work. Legal publications, registers, listings, press: the asset surface takes shape on paper.

3. Fieldwork. Address verification, occupancy findings, actual activity: every suspected asset is confirmed or discarded.

4. Report. One sheet per asset, chronology of transfers, an actionable summary, delivered to you or your counsel.

Two typical files, anonymised

An ex-spouse “without assets” whose rental flat collected rents through a family property company, seizure of the shares initiated; a convicted entrepreneur whose house had just been “sold” to his brother, clawback action grounded on our chronology, the sale declared ineffective.

The discreet property company. In family litigation, an ex-spouse pleads the absence of assets. The investigation uncovers a rental flat held through a family property company in which he owns most of the shares, rents duly observed. Seizure of the shares is initiated and negotiation resumes on realistic grounds, the “empty-handed” narrative collapses in a single hearing, and with it most of the opposing position.

The sale to the brother. Three weeks after the formal notice, the convicted entrepreneur’s house is “sold” to his brother, who never moved in. Our report establishes the chronology, the unchanged occupancy and the absence of any move. The clawback action succeeds: the sale is declared ineffective against the creditor, and the property seizure resumes.

How much does it cost?

The asset investigation is invoiced at €250 (excl. VAT) per identified property, as a complement to a solvency check (flat fee €1,600 excl. VAT max). A standalone asset inventory gets a free written quote, calibrated on the estate’s presumed spread.

This per-identified-asset pricing is deliberately incentive-based: you only pay the real-estate module for what is actually found and documented. Movable and corporate verifications are included in the base fee.

See the full price list.

Frequently asked questions