Under Article 1911 of the Civil Code, a debtor is liable for the performance of his or her obligations with all present and future assets.

This principle of universal patrimonial liability nevertheless admits certain exceptions established or permitted by law.

Thus, Article 140 of the Mortgage Act allows the parties to stipulate in the notarial authentic instrument creating a voluntary mortgage that the secured obligation may be enforced solely against the mortgaged assets. In that case, the debtor’s liability and the creditor’s enforcement rights arising from the mortgage loan are limited to those assets and do not extend to the debtor’s other assets.

Insolvency law also provides, subject to certain conditions, for the possibility that a natural person who is unable to meet his or her debts may obtain a discharge of part of the debts that remain unpaid, a mechanism commonly known as the “second chance”.

Under the Consolidated Text of the Insolvency Act, a debtor who is a natural person, whether or not an entrepreneur, may apply for a discharge of unsatisfied debts provided that he or she meets the statutory requirements for being regarded as a debtor in good faith.

The discharge may be obtained through a payment plan, without the need first to liquidate all of the debtor’s assets, or after liquidation of the insolvency estate in the cases provided for by law.
The discharge does not necessarily extend to all debts, since insolvency law identifies certain claims that are excluded from it, as well as the requirements and conditions that must be met in order to obtain and retain the discharge.