Taking responsibility refers to the legal phenomenon that creditors and debtors transfer all or part of their debts to a third party by concluding an agreement with a third party to transfer their debts without changing the contract.
Article 84 of the Contract Law of People's Republic of China (PRC) stipulates: "If the debtor transfers all or part of its contractual obligations to a third party, it shall obtain the consent of the creditor." This is the most explicit provision on debt commitment in China law at present. Debt commitment is a kind of debt transfer, which refers to the legal act that a third party intervenes in the creditor-debtor relationship based on the agreement reached between the creditor, the debtor and the third party and assumes part or all of the debt for the original debtor.
Debt commitment can be divided into debt forgiveness commitment and concurrent debt commitment according to whether the original debtor is exempted after commitment.
1. forgive the debt commitment. It means that the debtor transfers part or all of his debts to a third party with the consent of the creditor.
The effectiveness of the debt forgiveness commitment is as follows: the original debtor is separated from the debt relationship and is no longer responsible for the transferred debt (forgiveness); The third person becomes a new debtor and is responsible for the debt. The subordinate debts related to the principal debt, except those exclusively belonging to the original debtor, are also transferred to the new debtor with the principal debt. At the same time, the right of defense enjoyed by the original debtor against the creditor can also be used by the new debtor against the creditor.
2. Coexisting debt commitments. It refers to the relationship that the debtor does not leave the debt, and the third party joins the debt and shares the debt with the debtor.
In the undertaking of coexisting debts, because the original debtor is not divorced from the debts, it will not affect the interests of creditors, so in principle, the consent of creditors is not required, and it will take effect as long as the debtor or a third party notifies the creditors.