Debtor tracing: finding the one who owes you

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

A debt almost never dies in law: it dies in fact, for want of an address to serve, an employer to garnish, an estate to enforce against. Debtor tracing is the link that sets the procedure moving again. Lawyers, enforcement officers, recovery departments, landlords and individuals entrust us with these locations every month, across the Paris region, throughout France and abroad through the Prometheus Group network. This page explains why a verified address changes everything, how we work, what we deliver and at what price.

Why does a verified address change everything?

Because without a certain address nothing moves: service falls back on article 659 of the French Code of Civil Procedure (a report of fruitless searches), deadlines stretch, and enforcement goes blind. A real, documented address gives the file its grip on reality back.

The “PV 659” is a useful safety valve, not a solution: the procedure advances, but the debtor, never actually reached, does not react, and the judgment obtained hits the same wall at enforcement time. Conversely, a verified address, observed, not merely declared, allows effective service, targeted enforcement measures and, quite often, a renewed contact that ends in an amicable settlement.

That is why we never deliver a mere directory line: every address is confirmed by findings (actual presence, letterbox, comings and goings) before being reported.

How do we find a debtor?

By crossing three registers: the documentary trail (civil status, publications, professional registers), the digital trail (open sources, networks, listings) and the field (last address, neighbourhood, habits). The combination makes for reliability, and speed.

1. File analysis. Title, correspondence, old bank details, registrations: your file almost always contains unexploited starting points.

2. Documentary research. Civil status, trade and craft registers, legal publications, press: the trajectory is rebuilt on paper.

3. Open sources. Our OSINT unit exploits what the debtor leaves voluntarily visible: profiles, listings, online professional activity.

4. Field verification. The location is only reported once observed: actual presence at the address, at hours consistent with the file.

For debtors gone abroad, the WAD network and the Group’s correspondents take over, with the same confirmation standard.

What do we deliver, and to whom?

A location report: confirmed identity, observed actual address, apparent situation (employment, business, vehicle), time-stamped photographs where useful. It is delivered to you or directly to your counsel, and written to be usable by the enforcement officer.

On request, the report is enriched with a first solvency opinion: locating an insolvent debtor is only useful if you know it in time.

Within which legal framework do we work?

CNAPS licence, documented legitimate interest (recovering a debt, enforcing a title), collection limited to lawful sources and proportionate to the aim: the triptych that makes a location both legal and enforceable. The GDPR governs every processing operation.

Tracing people for recovery purposes is a classic activity of the licensed private investigator, indeed one of the profession’s oldest use cases. The counterpart is strict ethics: we verify the reality of the debt (title, contract, acknowledgment) before accepting the assignment, we communicate the address only to the creditor or his counsel, and we refuse any assignment whose real purpose would be harassment or intimidation.

That rigour also protects your procedure: a location obtained by unfair means would weaken the service and the enforcement built on it.

How long does a location take?

From a few days for a file with good starting points, to three or four weeks for a mobile or organised debtor. The written scoping fixes the deadline; the midway checkpoint lets you stop the assignment if the trail comes good sooner than expected.

Time also matters on the legal side: limitation periods keep running while a debtor stays unfound, and enforcement titles have their own validity horizons. When a deadline threatens the file, tell us at scoping, urgent locations are prioritised and, in the Paris region, fieldwork can start within 48 hours.

Two factors make the difference: the freshness of the information you hold (an address under two years old is a genuine starting point) and the debtor’s behaviour, someone fleeing his creditors paradoxically leaves more traces than someone who simply moved. We give you an honest estimate at the first consultation: some files resolve in 48 hours, others deserve to be abandoned in time.

Debtor located: what happens next?

The location unlocks three paths: effective service of process, targeted enforcement measures (wage garnishment through the identified employer, seizure and sale, vehicle seizure) and, quite often, negotiation, a debtor who knows he has been found readily returns to the table.

We never substitute for the enforcement officer or the lawyer: we give them the raw material that makes their acts effective. Depending on the file, the logical next step is personal service, a wage-garnishment application resting on the observed employer, or an asset investigation to prepare a more ambitious seizure.

One side effect is worth knowing: in a notable share of files, simply resuming contact at the right address is enough. The debtor who “disappeared” is often fleeing the pile-up rather than the debt itself; a realistic instalment plan, proposed at the right moment, sometimes beats a long enforcement. Your counsel decides, now with all the cards on the table.

Three typical locations, anonymised

A tenant gone with eighteen months of arrears, found by crossing his sports club and his new employer; a liquidated manager bouncing back under his brother-in-law’s sign; a guarantor “settled abroad” who lived twenty kilometres from the landlord.

The sporting tenant. Gone without an address and owing eighteen months of rent, he had cancelled every contract, except his sports licence. The club, his training schedule and one observation confirm the new home and the employer. Effective service, wage garnishment, arrears cleared in ten months.

The rebounding manager. His liquidated company left a large supplier debt. The legal publications showed nothing, but the field did: same depot, same vehicles, new sign in the brother-in-law’s name. The file, reframed with the creditor’s lawyer, ends in a settlement.

The twenty-kilometre expatriate. A guarantor claimed to live abroad, making the procedure “impossible”. Three days of investigation locate her in the outer suburbs, twenty kilometres from the landlord. Service goes out the following week, and the “impossible” procedure resumes its ordinary course, two years of standstill ended by three days of properly directed work.

How much does it cost?

Debtor tracing falls under administrative enquiries: from €350 (excl. VAT) for a national location with usable starting points. Complex files (organised debtors, foreign legs) and recurring volumes get a flat-fee quote, always free and validated before the assignment.

Add a solvency opinion (flat fee €1,600 excl. VAT max) to decide in one pass: where to serve, and whether enforcement is worth it.

See the full price list.

Frequently asked questions